Pikmin Interludes
by Zerodius
Summary: Between Olimar's second journey and the Koppaites' arrival, the Pikmin deal with the aftermath of their war with the Titan Dweevil and his minions alongside with the prospect of having to survive once more without outside assistance. This is a serie of individual scenes taking place during this time period of PNF-404's history.
1. Dream Den Aftermath

**OFF:** Well, finally got off my behind to write something and the subject of said something is a serie I've been overlooking for the longest time. Namely, Pikmin. Inspiration has struck me and I've taken it upon myself to start writing an AU following to the (at the time of this being writen) canon trilogy. However, as I begun to think about my growing interpretation of canon and my portrayal of the setting as a whole, butterflies begun to spring up in my mind and thus, the Interlude project was born.

Interlude is a serie of snippets and one-shots showing the Pikmin's point of view and actions during the lull in-between canon games, notably in-between the second and third game. Mostly, showing off the transition that led to the Onions' change to their Pikmin 3 design, the reason the Pikmin spreaded out to different regions from the first two games, the reason for new Pikmin types appearing, and so on.

It is my hope that the reader(s) will be entertained by this version of the Pikmin world I am slowly building up.

Comments and ideas are welcome, both positive and negative.

Enjoy!

* * *

><p><strong>Interlude<strong>

~1~

_Dream Den Aftermath_

* * *

><p>The alien is leaving. He had returned for treasure and then, to bring his friend back. The thinner, taller alien had been recovered and with all of the treasure that could be recovered from this region, it was now time for them to say goodbye once again.<p>

The alien's ship sure had changed. From a rust bucket, it had returned gold-plated, shiny, and much cleaner. The soldier and science strains, not having their own ships, had slept into the hold for much of the second war's duration and frankly, the lower volume of the engine now that the alien ship had been repaired was much appreciated, causing the science officers' infamous temper to become tolerable.

In a way, they'd miss this ship, though the other strains had prepared their own ships for accomodations for them.

But right now, this was not their concern. The thinner alien stood in the back of the ship's hold, shivering. His helmet was still on and frankly, everyone had figured out why already. They were wondering if the other aliens had, too.

"Forgive me... forgive me... please forgive me..." he had been whispering, mumbling those words almost non-stop ever since they had carried him out of that forsaken pit.

And there was the rub. The language barrier. They trusted the alien with their lives, for they owed him a debt that could never be repaid. They also had figured he owed them a debt that he could never repay. Even though words could not be shared, feelings could and the connection was strong. But objectively, the truth was that the language barrier was a thing despite the efforts of their scientists.

But this thinner, taller alien was different.

He had started like his other friend, the first alien, except in appearance. In fact, maybe worse ; his leadership skills were pathetic. Every colonist who had worked with him complained of his confusing orders, often given too late, and of his tendency to sit there while they were being slaughtered by predators. Or those times where he just stood there gaping like a fish while they flaundered without orders. Many actually resented that particular alien, to say the truth.

But he had begun to... change... during his stay. At first, everyone thought it was just weird alien biology stuff ; after all, the aliens had a startling lack of plant-like properties and were most probably entirely animal-like, not unlike many of the predators.

But change he did and the theories begun to revolve around the thinner alien's culinary experiments...

Dandelion stared at the alien. He was the oldest of the resurrected soldier strain, initially a common red strain who had been plunged into a genetic resequencer by the alien. He had taken part in most of the major battles of the second war, including the final battle with the spider king. He had personally disconnected the thinner alien from the monster's nervous system and carried him to the ship's hold. Like all of the others, he suspected there was more to the alien than it seemed.

He stared at the stem on top of the alien's helmet. Unlike flowerian stems, the ones on top of the aliens' helmets are artificial, being part of some kind of exoskeleton. The thinner alien's stem used to be like those of the other aliens', moving only because of the wind or because it was physically shoved. But through passing weeks and months, the stem had begun to... move like that of a flowerian. Even now, it waved in slow arcs, a physical sign of a nervous flowerian. This was highly abnormal.

He was going to finally go to the bottom of this. "You can understand us, can you?"

Startled, the alien's eyes widened before becoming fixated upon the purple flowerian. His mouth opened and closed repeatedly and he seemed to sweat a bit. Dandelion decided to stand up. "I know you can."

"Pl-please forgive me... please..."

He turned to the various scientist strain flowerians in the hold. They shrugged before turning back to lounging about. Everyone agreed silently to let the old soldier deal with this. So he stared at the alien and spoke up again.

"You were not to blame. I know... all of us know."

And at this moment, they all knew that Dandelion had been right in his guess. The alien's mumblings ceased completely. Surprise and shock replaced guilt. If he couldn't understand their language, he wouldn't have been brought out of his trance.

"The spiders are parasites." he explained to the shocked alien. "They integrated technology into their bodies to boost physical and mental attributes. The spider king's sudden sapience and intelligence was the product of forcefully integrating you into his nervous system. Your mind was probably completely overwhelmed by his will. You are not to blame for the suffering you caused."

The thinner alien looked down at his feet for a moment, the glowing stem above his head lowering more than an artificial one should. "It... it was horrible. My mind swam. I've always had problems with controlling my hunger and it's been getting worse ever since I got to this world. But when that... that thing grabbed me and shoved me into its head, I... all I could think was about food. I knew it was you, that what I was looking was were truly Pikmin yet the hunger was so great, all that registered in my mind was pikpik carrots..."

This definitely got everyone's attention. The theories and rumors had certainly been circulating regarding the spiders' sudden tactical brillance and bioengineering feats, something that a normally non-sapient species should be incapable of. The fact that the thinner alien had been discovered merged to the spiders' leader's head had only fueled the rumors. To have confirmation from the concerned alien himself finally shone a light on what had happened.

Yet, Dandelion still had a question. One that was shared with the other flowerians in the ship's hold and, deep down, with every other flowerian.

"You have... changed, didn't you?" The alien blinked a few times. He elaborated. "The others, in particular the short one. He's been with us since the beginning and yet, we still cannot communicate with words yet you understand us perfectly. And you mentionned a growing hunger before even meeting the spider king, one we indeed observed. What have you been doing, with all those smells that seemed like cooking?"

"I don't know. I just... wanted to taste all of those strange creatures we've been encountering. But when I tasted that weird flower, the one that change your colors, I think... it did more than just give me an indigestion. It made me... hungry, very hungry. And it never went away, no matter how much I ate."

And at this moment, everything fell into place. The scientist strain flowerians all had eyes as huge as saucers and frankly, so did the soldier strain ones too. A flower that changed colors... a genetic resequencer. He had consumed genetic resequencers...

And if he had eaten a large number of them, ingested their systems and what not, systems designed to survive simple cooking methods... and thus put them into contact directly with his flesh, and DNA...

"You don't need that helmet anymore, don't you?"

And at this moment, the thinner alien opened his eyes fully and instead of the alien-like irises that the others sported, Dandelion saw ones that... were just like his, a border of green visible around the edges. The glowing stem atop his helmet whipped in a single motion and everyone figured what had happened.

"Oh... dear..." Frankly, he was lost for words for a moment. "So... you indeed don't need it anymore. It's how you survived so many weeks when a single space suit's air supply should have failed well beforehand..."

There was no jet of steam or air when the thin alien removed his helmet, showing that the suit had long exhausted its air supply. He stared, without the visor, with his own two eyes, at the creatures that had rescued him from the spider king...

"What will I tell my family? What will they say if they see me like this? I... I don't even know if I count as a hocotatian anymore. I ate meat... and I digested it! I've drawn nourishment from sunshine alone! And the things I see now... I... I don't know what to do."

First, they finally learnt how the aliens called themselves. This was nice. But the other, more important point was that the obvious finally did hit them. The way the other hocotatian treated them, there was trust and love... but also lack of understanding and a lack of confidence that shown that he was wondering if they were truly sapient. Yet this one was not surprised they could speak to him at all.

He knew. He had probably known for a very long time that they were not instinctive beings but rather, sapients.

And at this moment, thoughts swirled among every flowerian. One of the scientist strain ones decided to break the silence.

"I think we may be able to help."

"You... you'd be able to fix this?"

"It's a far-fetch but... you became like this by eating genetic resequencers, correct?"

"Candypop Buds? Y-yes..." anwsered the hocotatian. The white flowerian rubbed its chin, its stem shifting as it thought for a moment.

"I think we may be able, in time, to create a genetic resequencer to return you to normal. However, our colony is still weak. Our population was completely gone until your partner shown up and resurrected us. We are still learning how to operate our own technology. In fact, you know very well that we're in dire need of survival skills too. We'd be hard-pressed in recreating our technology at the moment. However..." he did the flowerian equivalent of a smile. The hocotatian seemed to notice it. "... we owe you a debt, just as we do your friend."

"Even... after what I did?"

"You're a friend. You may not be a great leader at times and you might have done mistakes, but we all hang together in the end." said the soldier flowerian.

And at long last, the tension in the ship seemed to relax. Slowly, the hocotatian put back his helmet on and stared at the flowerians.

"My name is Louie, by the way. What's your names? I mean... we call you pikmin but your race probably had a name before, isn't it?"

"Yes, we're called flowerians." replied the scientist flowerian. "How about we share terms? You're probably wondering what we call all of what we saw during our journey and to be fair, I'm really curious about what you call everything, too."

The discussion would last for hours. Later, Dandelion would share with the flowerians of the other ships the name of the one to whom they owe everything: Olimar.

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><p><strong>Fin<strong>


	2. Point and Aqua

**OFF: **Here is a second interlude, this time taking place ashort time after Olimar left PNF-404 for the second time.

* * *

><p><strong>Interlude<strong>

~2~

_Point & Aqua_

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><p><em>tap tap tap tap...<em>

"Point, leave that butterfly alone and help me move this thing!"

Sometimes, Aqua wondered how Point could possibly be the last of the four red elders and the oldest living flowerian. Actually, she often wondered this. Especially now, as he running after some butterfly instead of helping her get that radio decoder back to the ship.

Oh sure, rationally she knew that despite being cloned from an adult he was still only a few years old at best but frankly? She doesn't care at the moment. Her colleagues are busy studying a shallow pool of water, more like playing around and throwing water at one another, and most of the other reds were just running around like idiots. It was infuriating. Was no one else taking this endeavor seriously?

If only Olimar was here! He'd whistle once and everyone would help her lift this stupid thing! And how come this decoder is so heavy anyway? She carried bulborb corpses that weren't as heavy as the dumb thing!

"Wheee!" _tap tap tap tap..._

"Point, I swear I'll pluck the petals off your flower if you don't help me!"

"Yaaaay!"

"ONE BY ONE! WITH PLIERS!"

The red flowerian tripped and fell flat on his face. After getting up and straightening his nose, he finally turned to the blue flowerian. He seemed not to notice that her face was the same color as his currently.

"You want something, Aqua?" Then it finally registered that blue flowerians' faces should be, well, blue. "You okay?"

"Help. Now."

The red flowerian rolled his eyes and then strolled to her side. And finally, put his hands under the thing and helped her lift it. His entire body tensed, even his stem, as he felt the strain all over his body. "Whoa! What's this thing made of, lead?"

"Why do you think I wanted help? Now let's move it to the ship!"

"one two one two, breathe! One two one two breathe!" And thus came the mantra. It was so strange, in a way. To carry all of those heavy things all day over vast distances. Lifting something up, let alone carrying it around was an ordeal that seemed impossible. Yet, if they focused on the present, if they just repeated the mantra and kept moving, inch by inch, toward the ship, they'd eventually find out they carried something huge back with nothing but their own strength!

And so the two went silent, except for the repeated encouragement to one another to keep lifting and moving.

And then, before they knew it, they were back to the ship. The ship's tractor beam activated and the two finally put down the decoder. In a flash of light, the device was sucked upward and into the vessel. While Aqua wiped the sweat that had formed on her face, Point rolled his aching shoulders.

"So... why did you want to load this thing in the ship anyway? Looked pretty metallic to me. Don't think we'll get seeds from it."

"I've been experimenting with loading all sorts of devices into the ships lately." said the blue, sitting down to catch her breath. "We've always had problems because our ships' radars have been broken since before even Crimson was born, leaving us to rely on either Olimar's ship or our own eyes to find new landing locations. And with the former unavailable for obvious reasons, well, the later is kind of not working too well. It's crazy how even huge things look small from orbit..."

Aqua glared as Point did the red flowerian's equivalent of a smirk. She knew what he was going to say next was going to be particularly lacking in the cleverness and intelligence departments. "You landed in the middle of a pack of bulbears, didn't you?" Called it.

"Go kiss a live wire, Point."

"I'll take this as a yes." Aqua gave Point a flat stare but he still didn't get the message. Oh well. He might as well make himself useful since he's there.

"Anyway, I'm going to go configure the ship, see if it can integrate the device. Come with me."

"What for?" And here he was, crossing his arms behind his head, stem swaying back and forth. She hated it when Point acted like this. "You're the expert here, not me."

"I still want you around while I work on the thing."

"So this is a boring job and you want somebody to be with you to make it less dull. Got it."

"Go pet a yellow wollywog, Point." Point did the red equivalent of a smile but despite his words, as Aqua moved up the left leg of the ship to enter it, he did follow. Aqua tried to be serious all the time and it was quite fun, and actually fairly necessary for the blue's nerves, to bring her back to reality once in a while.

So yeah, here he was, back inside the ship way before sunset while Aqua worked to do... something with the ship. Frankly, he didn't like messing with the ships. Aqua and some of the other blues formed the scientists of their population, studying the ships and the various devices that were all over PNF-404. He definitely could respect their curiosity ; he himself was very curious and like every other flowerian, he was thankful for the information they got from the ships' computers. Still, he didn't like the whole sit down in front of a console for hours and hit keys with your hands and stem for hours part of it. He was more than glad to let Aqua do that.

He guessed... it also shown that the cloning facilities created new people, not merely recreations. Sure, he already knew that because of Crimson, rest his soul, but Aqua's position as top scientist proved it. According to the records, the white flowerians had been designed and bred specifically for their superior intellect and keen senses, with their stature smaller and lighter as they were not meant for physical work. And yet, many white flowerians were part of their elite forces and a blue flowerian, a simple civilian with modifications for aquatic life, was their top scientist. Funny, if one really think about it.

As he sat in that corner, he couldn't help but think more about their current situation and more importantly, Aqua herself. And more exactly, the fact that she called herself a "she". She had explained herself many times before but frankly? Right now he was bored and he wanted her to explain herself again.

"Aqua... I've been wondering."

"Ha! So you're using the nervous system in your head instead of the one in your stem for once? I'm impressed! Shoot." went the blue, not even looking away as she continued to type at the console.

"Why do you act offended when someone call you "him" or "he"? I mean... we're half-plant, half-animal. Our flowers technically got both of the componements for producing seeds."

Aqua flinched, slowing down for a moment. Yes, this was going to be one of those conversations.

"Look, I've told you a thousand times, maybe more. We might all get flowers eventually but the contents are not equal. Some flowers are more suitable for pollination with more stamens but a smaller carpel, others to be pollinated with less stamens but a more developed carpel. Likewise, the physical shape of some individuals is more fitting to bear seeds than others. Myself? Few stamens in my flower but large carpel, body structure fitting the production and bearing of seeds." she said, rather slowly, trying to keep her concentration as she dealt with the rather temperamental ship's computer.

"But isn't that a bit arbitrary, especially since we all got both sets of componements? If having the amount of stamens you got is being female, then what if you got two more? Or two less? Does that make someone a... well, I don't know something?"

"It doesn't work that way." Aqua was trying to hide that she was losing her patience. Her stem betrayed her feelings, straightening before whipping backward violently.

"Well, why should it work that way? And why the terms male and female? Why not the gender of awesome, for example?"

"Pollinate yourself, Point."

"Yeah! From now on, they'll say awesomist or awesomeish or something like that!" He rubbed his long nose a moment, as if in deep thought. Aqua doubted his hollow skull could produce such a thing as a thought."

"With a stick!"

"And what makes you insist we call you a female anyway? Having less stamens doesn't make you female, I think it makes you less able to make seeds!"

"A RUSTY METAL STICK!"

And now she was off the console and staring straight at him. "What did I do wrong?"

He didn't quite get what she yelled at him next but from her tone, he was kind of glad he didn't get it. That and she thrown a loose piece of discarded metal at his head, making him see stars for a moment. Which probably meant she thrown it rather hard given it wasn't anywhere near sunset and he was inside the ship anyway.

"Hey! Why did you do that?"

"You're a jerk."

He blinked a few times and then did the red equivalent of a frown. "Am not! You're just grumpy and serious all the time!"

"Grumpy and serious? At least I don't spend my days goofing off!"

"Loosen up, grumpy face! It's sunny outside!"

"I need to do this, Point! Those radars won't repair themselves!"

"You're just overcompensating because neither Crimson or Olimar are here! Relax!"

Point immediately regretted his words. He knew he often got into arguments with the blue flowerian but he had the feeling that he had just stepped beyond a line that went beyond their usual playful disagreements, that he had struck an actual nerve and provoked actual, true rage in Aqua.

He knew he shouldn't have pushed but frankly? Ever since the end of the second war, Crimson's death, and the second departure of Olimar, Aqua had been kind of... obsessed. So his regrets were kind of drowned out by all of the annoyance he had been suppressing up to this point.

"Point." There was no playful anger in her voice. Her tone was cold, awfully cold, a freezing cold that spoke of true rage. "You're the last of the red elders, the oldest among us, effectively Crimson's successor. With Olimar gone and until he returns, if he returns again that is, everyone will be looking up to you to lead them, to make sure they survive this forsaken dump of a death world. And... and you spend your days running after butterflies. You... spend your days... running after butterflies."

"But he wasn't Olimar! And everyone knew this! And... and he could laugh, sing, and joke around with us! Like you used to! We're alive, the bulborbs' populated has been culled, and Titan Dweevil is dead. Can't we have a break, Aqua?"

"Olimar would be ashamed of you. Crimson too."

Too much frustration, too much suppressed anger. He missed Olimar, he missed Crimson, he missed everyone who wasn't here and should have played with him in the sun. And frankly? He knew he wasn't Crimson, even less Olimar. Crimson had been everything Point wished he could be but wasn't. Hard working, brave, determined, kind, skilled with tactics and strategy, an icon behind which all of the flowerian strains could rally behind in the absence of Olimar... And meanwhile, who was he? Point. The red flowerian that Olimar told to take point and look from afar while he and Crimson did all the real work. He knew he couldn't fit Crimson's shoes, even less Olimar's. What is he supposed to do, pretend he can? What more could he do anyway? He can't make the ships' radars work by snapping his fingers! He don't even know how the ships work!

It wasn't fair. Crimson had been the first among them, the eldest. He had survived the first great war, helped Olimar repair his ship and escape the planet, fought Emperor Bulblax and defeated him, led at Olimar's side during the second great war against the Dweevils, and even took part in the assault on the Dream Den, Titan Dweevil's personal fortress. He had always been at Olimar's side, always. And they did great things together, always.

And then, he survived all of this... only for Titan Dweevil, stripped of all of his weapons, to grab him and choke him in a last act of spite instead of trying to save himself by running away from the flowerians who had defeated him.

So when she insulted him that way? It went straight to his heart and he lashed out. "Titan Dweevil should have choked you to death, not him."

The dam broke, from both sides. Aqua's fist made quite the impression on Point's nose as she dove at him, practically making it cave in. Normally, he would have reacted by asking what he did wrong. But this was not a punch out of annoyance, it was one born of rage, with the intention of injuring, not merely hurt. And Point found himself no longer caring as he responded in kind, smashing her cheek with his superior strength before bringing down his stem, whipping her head violently.

Despite the blinding pain that assaulted Aqua, the blue flowerian's anger was sufficient for her to ignore it and respond in kind. Before long, the two were rolling all over the place, making quite the racket as they grunted in a mix of pain and pure rage. Frustrations repressed for months surfaced in the ugliest way possible.

Point struck with all of the strength his insecurities gave him while Aqua's sheer lack of hope in their kind to survive without Olimar and her own inadequacies fueled her attacks.

"Whoa!"

Both flowerians froze, Point's fist stopping mid-punch while Aqua's stem stopped mid-whipping motion. Both pairs of eyes settled upon Floppy, the oldest living yellow. He looked at both and then, scratching the back of his head.

"Oh wow. I... err, hmmm, yeah. Oh yes!" He snapped his fingers, as if remembering something. "The computer records state that it's normal for most species to give couples some privacy when they're in the middle of something! So... I guess I'll kind of leave you two to pollinate."

Total silence. The two flowerians' eyes were the approximative size of saucers as Floppy left the scene as quickly as he had entered it.

Why, oh why would he say something like this? Their gazes wandering upward... and noticed the two flowers messily slammed into one another. Oh. This must be why he came to that conclusion.

"Do you really think mere contact in such a way can-" Point couldn't finish his sentence before Aqua pointed at him.

"You speak one word of what happened today and I'll feed you to a bulbear. Got it?"

The red flowerian nodded quickly.

More awkward silence. Just two flowerians, bruised and finally feeling actually kind of bad about it all sitting there. Deciding to take the initiative, the red got up and approached the exit ramp.

"Look... I'm sorry. I know I'm not Crimson. I know everyone expect me to take his place because I'm the oldest left but... he was... brave, hard-working, a hero. All things I'm not. I know I-"

"No." Aqua interrupted him. "You were right. I try to act like I know best but I'm just as scared. I don't know what's coming. I don't know if our people can even survive without Olimar. I've been stopping myself from living because of my fear. When was the last time I sang, or played with the others? I've been a fool. I'm... I'm..."

She saw him stare at him and though he did not interrupt her with words, she guessed that it wasn't necessary. He was young despite being cloned from an adult... like her, actually. An insecure youth in an adult's body trying to live up to her supposed maturity. He was so immature... and so was she. Irony, indeed.

"I wonder what Olimar would say about us..."

"He'd probably find us both very cute and silly and then get us to stop goofing off." He moved to exit the ship when he noticed the blue flowerian at his side, smiling. He blinked a few times before she reached out, grabbed his squashed nose, and straightened it, her smile relaxed and kind. "So... what was it about that butterfly, Point?"

"Oh, nothing much. It had patterns on its wings like a big face and I found it kind of neat. I wanted to take a better look..."

"Sounds cool. Show me."

He returned the smile in his own way and they both left the ship. The auto-repair systems could take over until sunset. For now, they had something more important to do out there.

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><p><strong>Fin<strong>


	3. Nocturnal trip

**OFF:** No comments or anything yet? Well, it's okay. I write these mostly based on what I think would be interesting and/or funny.

This one is quite a bit longer than the previous ones. I hope you'll find it entertaining!

If you have any comments, suggestions for more interlude scenes, or criticism, don't hesitate. I don't mind at all!

* * *

><p><strong>Interlude<strong>

~3~

_Nocturnal trip_

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><p>Ha... the beautiful planet PNF-404. With its pure nature, beautiful sun, blue skies free of pollution, and skyscraper-sized frogs who can send multi-tons tanks flying with a flick of their front paw.<p>

Of course, that last point was kind of why no one really came to PNF-404 despite its breath-taking landscape. Not everyone enjoyed taking vacations on planets where every time you step outside of your ship you have about a forty percents chance you'll not return. But then, it was kind of convenient to the flowerians. Given their low population number and the fact that they had to learn their own science and how to build and maintain their own technology from scratch, the fact that they didn't have to bear with other species potentially picking on them and trying to steal their things was a nice thing. Though sometimes, especially when they were being pursued by house-sized bulbears with the natural running speed of a bullet train and who hit about as hard as one too, Point pondered if dealing with space pirates might actually be safer.

Anyway, with the faster than light drives on all the ships busted and the low odds of him living to see them ever repaired, it wasn't a particularly pressing concern to him. Right now, his bigger concern was the makeshift game of ball that he and his friends had made. Playing in the grass, enjoying a carefree day, trying not to think that a bulborb may come out at any moment to sully the wonderful evening.

Nah, no need to be paranoid. They raided the local bulborb lair in the area and killed the empress bulborb. The entire population has been culled and the stragglers have associated the flowerians with danger instead of food. They should be alright for a few more weeks, more or less.

In fact, Point was rather surprised at the lack of screams of terror in the last few days. It wasn't very often that he ever thought such a thing but... today was a good day to be a flowerian on PNF-404.

Of course, having this thought was just inviting trouble. Thankfully, trouble did not come in the form of a pair of fiery blowhogs deciding it's a good day for a barbecue and charging in. Rather, he heard a shrill, high-pitched voice call for him.

"POIIIIINT!" it called. From the sound of it, it belonged to a fellow flowerian rather than some improbably gigantic and monstrously powerful predator. "WE'RE RECEIVING A TRANSMISSION! FROM THE YELLOW SHIP! FLOPPY WANTS TO TALK!"

Oh well. The day had been nice while it lasted. He turned to his fellow reds who blinked a few times, their stems leaning to the side as they stared at him, wondering what was going on. He scratched the back of his head, embarassed to find himself the center of attention so suddenly.

"Sorry guys, duty calls."

Yeah, that was a bummer. Still, if Floppy was using the ships' communication lines to talk instead of just moving his ship over and doing so in person, it had to be important. So here he went, walking all the way back to the onion-shaped vessel before climbing the left ramp. Inside, he walked past the quarters he and his fellow reds used during the night to enter the cockpit. Surely enough, the screen above the console shown the image of a large-eared yellow-colored flowerian. Yep, it's Floppy alright.

"Hmmm... hi. This thing is turned on, right?"

"I confirm you got the audio channel activated. Or rather, that someone forgot to turn it off before running off to find you. Your ship's engine got a neat purr to it. Two octaves under mine. Hopefully it's nothing bad, given our ships are supposed to be the same model only with different paint schemes."

Oh my. He glanced away for a moment, not sure what to say. Figuring that this was way too awkward, he decided to just go straight to the point.

"So... well... why did you call?"

"The last few nights, we've flown the ship close to an unexplored region, near the south continent. Ever since Aqua has begun repairing the radars on our ships, we've been scanning the planet for pockets of survivors other than ourselves."

"I'm not too sure about that. If there were any, then wouldn't they have reactivated our ships instead of Olimar having to do it? The records were pretty clear that no one survived very long after the evacuation of the initial colony compound."

"I thought about that too." the yellow flowerian said, scratching his chin a bit. "Still, if Olimar could reactivate our ships, maybe we can reactive others ourselves. We did find a number of them after we finished destroying Emperor Bulblax's hive. Most importantly, there's got to be ships containing the DNA sequences for the soldier and scientist strains somewhere..."

And at that moment, Point got what he meant. While it is true that what allowed them to survive was the skills that Olimar had taught them, the rate of attrition they faced was still such that if it wasn't from the ships' bio-engineering bays and their cloning facilities, the colony would have become extinct again. Simply put, flowerian natural reproduction just could not keep up. In fact... had anyone produced seeds the natural way since Olimar's arrival? Point wasn't sure. And given he was the oldest living flowerian at the moment, this wasn't a good sign. Still, he got Floppy's point.

The purple and white flowerian strains were designed, respectively, for combat and research. The incredible resilience and strength of the purple flowerians and the swiftness and alternate uses for the white flowerians' toxins were invaluable to the survival of their kind. However... they had no way to create anymore and even if it turn out the flowers at the end of their stems are fertile, the cold truth remain that without a ship with the correct DNA banks and cloning facilities to make use of them, the two strains would eventually become extinct due to the sheer casualty rate they faced by virtue of PNF-404's environment and biosphere.

If the purple and white ships had survived at all, they needed to be found urgently. Yesterday, if possible.

"Ha! So you think you got a clue to the whereabouts of the purple and white ships?"

"Not quite, unfortunately." admitted the yellow flowerian. "However, we've located a region where the local fauna got a peculiar behaviour. Most of the predators on this world are nocturnal, which is why we need to take off every sunset but in this region, it's the opposite. The local predators there are diurnal."

Point blinked a few times. If this is true, then it meant...

"Yes, you probably figured it out. This region must be explored by night."

Now that was an interesting find! Aqua would probably be overjoyed, too! To say the truth, no one really knew much about the biosphere of the planet during the night. Given that staying past sunset was a death sentence, no one had really dared to land before morning to study any of the wildlife. An area where predators slept during the night... that would be an opportunity even if they can find no ships in. If anything, such predators would be less deadly because they'd be hunting during a time where they lack a vision advantage over flowerians.

Of course, this led him to a question that was quite important. "So... I take it you already explored the place? What did you find?"

"Err... you see, that's the problem." Suddenly, Point's good mood vanished as he saw Floppy scratch the back of his head again, his stem flaying back in a manner that did not inspire him with confidence. "You see... though we can fight and all, as you know, you reds are more fit and generally stronger. And well, you got Dandelion and most of the soldier strain flowerians with you. So I was wondering if you could... well..."

His mood soured sufficiently that he felt as if his flower had wilted on the spot from the sheer dread that froze his body. As petals invaded his vision, he pushed his stem off from in front of his eyes.

"I mean... if that isn't too much of a problem?"

"N-no. It's... not a problem. I-I'll gather some volunteers and come over."

Yeah, that had been a fine bunch of days indeed. He should have known this would be the last days of his life. Exploring an unknown region at night, even one with diurnal predators? Sure, he miss Crimson and all of his dead friends but he's not in that much of a hurry to join them.

"You're okay, Point? Your face looks kind of pale."

"I'll-I'll live. I'll be right over."

"Ha! Nice then. I'm transmitting the rendezvous location to your ship's computer. We'll link up just before sunset."

The screen blanked out as the communication line closed. Point shut down the console, though it took him a few tries due to his trembling hand. For a moment, he wondered how being eaten and digested alive felt like. He shuddered and cursed his own brain for bringing up yet again a question he did not want to know the anwser to. He cursed his brain further for bringing up Aqua's guess regarding the process. Namely, that the lucky ones die from blood loss and physical trauma from being munched upon. The unlucky ones are subjected to intense pressure which crush most of their bones and organs as they travel down the esophagus only to suffer agony as they simultaneously undergo suffocation due to the noxious fumes and lack of oxygen inside the stomach while being bathed in stomach juices, causing constant severe acid burns to the entire body until they either choke to death or the acid eats its way to vital organs, terminating life functions.

Why? Why, oh why had he asked Aqua this and why did she anwser? And why, of all things, had he chosen to remember this?

Flowerians tended to sing and hum to themselves when experiencing pure, raw, unaldutered terror as to take off their minds from the horrible situation they were stuck in. Point was no different and thus begun to hum, his vision growing blurry as he begun to outright tremble from the sheer fear.

* * *

><p>"So... let me get this straight. There's this new, unexplored region that he scanned using Aqua's fancy new untested wonder radar. And he wants us all to explore it. At night. Am I getting this right?" Dandelion, like everyone else, was rightfully skeptical as whenever or not this was exactly a good idea.<p>

All Point had to offer was a nervous laugh.

"Yeaaaaaah." went Dandelion before turning to the mass of reds and purples around him. "Any psychologists around?"

No one said anything. Nervous glances abounds.

"Or... at least, anyone cloned from a psychologist?"

Still more silence. Oh! Oh, nevermind. Just a red in the back coughing.

"Bummer." said the purple elder, turning to Point. "Because I think Floppy might be suicidal and is purposefully trying to get himself killed."

"I don't know. He didn't sound down and well, if the place is really filled with diurnal predators..."

"This is an awful idea and we're all going to die if we go. And you know that." From Dandelion's narrowed eyes and tone, it was obvious he was not helping this time. "I'm going."

Just as he thought, he refu-

Wait what?

He... accepted?

Noticing the red's sheer disbelief, the purple crossed his arms. "Don't get me wrong, this is completely and utterly crazy. The chances of this going horribly wrong and half of us dying are pretty close to one hundred percents. However, this is the exact kind of completely insane, deeply stupid plan that Olimar and Crimson would have come up with. I mean... who would have been crazy enough to fix the bulborb infestation issue by diving straight into their lairs and killing the empress bulblaxes? Frankly, I think crazy is the right thing to do at the moment."

Point was not sure if he liked that logic. But then, they did need to find the purple and white ships and they wouldn't do so by looking at places they already fully explored. And now that he mention it... this will probably not be as dangerous as invading the Dream Den or the Bulborb Kingdom.

And well... why would he need convincing? He's the one trying to convince them to go along with this plan! Oh... oh yeah. He's having those thoughts because he like being alive and Floppy's plans sounds like a great way to find out how being digested alive feels like.

"Alright. Then let's get going!"

He put two fingers in his mouth and blew.

The expected whistling did not come. He tried again, harder this time. Nothing expect his cheeks puffing up and his stem flapping madly in the air.

"What are you trying to do?"

"Err... trying to whistle to indicate we're all going? You know... symbolic gesture? Like Olimar or Crimson used to do?"

Flat stares. From everyone, not just Dandelion this time. He felt a bead of sweat go down the side of his head. "... I think I'll drop the idea. So! Everyone! We're gonna go on a trip with the yellows! It's time to gather everyone to prepare for the trip!"

A chorus of cheers echoed and for a moment, Point did the red equivalent of a smile. Trips are always fun! Well... mostly. The whole point about risking life and limb is less so but well, it was the thought that count and putting it this way, maybe it won't be so bad. If the predators are really diurnal, then it should go smoothly.

* * *

><p>Of course, things went horribly wrong before they even got to board the ship and head to the rendezvous. As Point and Dandelion stood by the ship's legs and counted, more than eight flowerians were missing.<p>

"We're late." said the elder purple, to the red's annoyance.

"I know."

"This area is unsafe by night."

"Look, I know this whole planet is unsafe by night. In fact, it's unsafe all the time. That flower on my head is not a result of a crazy nectar drinking frenzy. I earned it the old-fashioned way. I'm an airhead, not an idiot."

The purple shrugged. The various reds all looked around while the purples milled about, trying to look like they were keeping order or something. Mostly, they looked silly and everyone knew they were. The entire situation just felt awkward without Olimar or Crimson to organize everything and even months later, still felt as such.

"Remind me why they want me to lead them when you're the one who got the skills." he whispered to the larger flowerian.

"Not much of a leader. I prefer following orders. And hey, given your age, you probably forgot more skills than I know."

"What I know is mostly standing still and screaming in terror if something scary come my way. And I like orders as much as you do."

"So did Crimson. Beside, my skills are limited to jumping and hitting things in the face with my fists and stem."

Point sighed. "Why do we have this argument every single sunset?"

"Don't feel bad, so did Crimson. And according to Louie, Olimar himself constantly second guessed his ability to lead. So if even Olimar had doubts like this? I think it comes with the title and responsabilities. Besides, according to you, he did leave behind quite a few of us by mistake too."

"Oh sure, he'd forget one or two. Not freakin' eight."

"You're the one who experienced the first war, not me. So if you say so..."

He walked right into that one. He sighed. There was not much else to do expect search. Yeah, that was going to please Floppy. Oh hey, sorry I did not go at the rendezvous point in time despite your very generous schedule allocation! I was busy running after an entire group of flowerians I somehow left to die in the grass! Suuuure. Floppy will love to hear that.

At this rate, they'll never go and explore the dumb place.

So here he was, already late, running after a bunch of his fellow flowerians. This was as humiliating as it was terrifying. He was expected to keep track of time and make sure everyone stay in a group and go back to the ship on time. The idea that any of his friends could end up out there during the night... he found himself with his throat suddenly very dry, his body seizing up. The worst was that if anyone was left behind, it would be flowerians whose names he'd known, with whom he lived, fought, played, sang with... and he'd never see them again or if he did, it would be as mutilated corpses or torn stems left behind with no bodies attached.

No no no! He won't leave anyone behind!

He tried to calm down. He retraced his steps, trying to get his memory working. Okay, so he played with his friends in this clearing, near the large yellow flower, for a few hours. Beforehand, they looked for food to the left, near a small cave. Before that, they moved back and forth between the ship and a large quarry bunches of dead biological matter for the ship to process as well as metallic scrap for upgrading the ship.

Oh! OH! He remember now! During break at that moment of work, he sat down with one of the mid-generation reds, Salsa he believe, and some newcomers, Ferdinand and Selminar. At least, they got to be new generation ones, judging by the names.

A simpler name, like his own, Crimson, Floppy, or Aqua may sound really silly but they were worn with pride as they were signs of one being part of the original flowerians recreated and plucked by Olimar during the first war. As the population grew and they gained experience and skills, they had begun giving more abstract, proper names to newborns. So generally, the older a flowerian is, the more likely his name is to be some kind of lame pun regarding his color or what his function in Olimar's squads used to be.

Hmmm... he should definitely focus on the issue at hand. It's starting to turn quite dark after all. So he turned to the side, blinking a few times as he looked at the various crevices all over the place. But he saw no signs of any of his friends. In particular, he... oh dear. He found himself panicking again. Salsa! Salsa had not been among the ones present at the landing site when he counted everybody!

Oh dear oh dear! He ran as fast as his short legs allowed him to, which was frankly quite swiftly actually. As a full adult physically, his limbs were noticeably stronger than those of a newborn and as a red, he had greater natural strength, helping him in running faster and farther than other flowerians could. Sure, Dandelion and other soldier strain flowerians were a lot stronger than him by a rather huge margin but when it came to running, he was pretty much the fastest flowerian alive outside of the scientist strain white ones.

In fact, he guessed that this mixed with the fact that he mostly just watched instead of participating in battles was why he was the oldest flowerian alive right now. Once again, he found himself choking over the death of his old friend and idol ; Crimson had earned his old age, grasping every day by punching, whipping, and kicking those who would make him a meal in the face. Meanwhile, what did he do? Run away a lot.

No no! Don't think of Crimson! Salsa got to be somewhere! He and seven others he forgot because he's an idiot who paid attention to the ball more than to everyone's locations during the game or when everyone was ferrying stuff back to the ship. And Dandelion thinks he should lead the red flowerians? What a joke!

Nope, not in the small crevice. Nope, not under that rock. Nope, not under the big metal plate. Nope, not under that big leaf. They weren't in the quarry or the playground. And the sun was starting to set! Where are they?

He blinked and looked to the sky.

It was even worse than that.

"No... no. No! NO! NO NO NO!" he panicked! The sun was almost down! Not only was he insanely late but he was too far from the ship! He had spent so much time looking for his friends that he had not noticed he had went past the safety limit!

"I don't wanna die I DON'T WANNA DIE!" he broke into a sprint, as fast as his limbs could, his eyes bulging from the combined terror and effort. He remembered watching from the ships' viewports as unfortunate flowerians who had been just a tiny bit too slow had scrambled to the ships just as they lifted off only for their cries of panic to turn to screams of agony as bulborbs snatched them.

Was... was he going to end up that way? No! He doesn't want to! Once more, he remembered Aqua's description of how dying by being eaten entailed. Frankly? Thinking on that really bad argument he had with her the other day, he think he should have punched her in the face harder actually. He really, really did not need to remember this!

The shadows grew and even as he tripped over a large root, he didn't even take the time to dust himself off, almost punching the ground with both fists as he forced himself upright and resumed his mad dash for the ship. He was panting, his entire body sweating from the intense effort. Even with his nose, mouth, and flower sucking in air as much as they could, his lungs still burnt from the effort. His tiny feet hurt and he felt as though his legs had turned to stone, threatening to lock up with every step. Every time his feet stomped into the ground only to propel him forward, it felt as though sharp needles pierced through them.

But well, adrenaline and the sheer drive to survive did a wonderful job of making him ignore his body's desesperate pleas for him to lie down.

Dizziness struck him and he felt as though the air was not so much sucked in and forced back out into his body as it was simply shoved halfway through being forced right out. The pain from the effort was threatening to floor him every step and yet, he forced his way through. Images of sharp teeth and giant bulborbs, their eyes glowing ominously in the dark, forced him forward. His mad dash might have caused petals from his flower to be torn off and he wouldn't have noticed.

And then, the blessed sight came to him. The onion-like shape of the starship, its three landing gear legs still deployed and awaiting him. He wasn't too late!

But then, the single noise that he dreaded most begun. The engine of the ship roared to life, the propeller on top begun to spin slowly, gaining on speed. He screamed in sheer desesperation and terror, not even bothering calling for help. He had to make it! He had to! He saw someone poking his head out of the access ramp door.

Salsa... SALSA?!

Now he felt that this was insult to injury! How and why was he already in the ship when he hadn't been there when he counted everybody? He had spent all this time looking for him! And now he was going to die because he wasted time looking for someone who had made it to the ship already? What a sick joke!

No! No! He doesn't wanna die! He doesn't want to find out how being eaten feels like! He's going to... he's going to-

Pain. Blinding, paralyzing pain.

He always used to be a bit of a klutz despite his speed. Maybe in fact because of his speed. Tripping and faceplanting was something he was used to by now. He just got up and straightened his nose before resuming what he was doing. But as his legs both simultaneously locked up and he felt like his feet had just been sliced open, he faceplanted... and did not get back up.

There was nothing else to give. He had completely, utterly exhausted himself. All he could think about, all he could feel was the burning feeling as he sucked in air, his legs in such pain he didn't even feel his nose being squished from the fall. A tiny whisper in the back of his head told him that he was finally going to reunite with Crimson and though the sheer terror caused his vision to blur, adding to the world as it spun around him, he found himself accepting it, strangely enough.

What a joke. What a foolish, deeply stupid end.

Something grabbed his stem. He wanted to close his eyes but for some reason, he found himself unable to. All he could do was cry as something clamped solidly over his stem, lifting it. He was going to die. It was all over. And for the worst, most foolish reason ever.

Huh? Something purple... Dandelion?

His shoulder was gripped and he was lifted. He saw the ramp under him, the purple feet moving as he realized someone had grabbed him and slung him over his shoulder, carrying him back inside. He saw his friends, their eyes widened with worry.

It was too much, far too much. The wave or relief overwhelmed his senses, causing him to faint on the spot.

* * *

><p>When he woke up, he noticed a couple of points. One, he was inside his ship. Two and most importantly, he was still alive.<p>

"So..." he called out weakly. "What did I miss?"

"Just everyone recovering from having their leaves scared off their stems by your little daredevil stunt and the ship moving toward its rendezvous position". Dandelion gave the red flowerian quite the stern stare. "Not cool, Point. Not cool. We really thought we had lost you for a moment there."

Point blinked a few times as he saw Salsa in the corner, leaning against a wall. If his face wasn't naturally red, it would turn that color right now. He found himself springing to his feet, feeling quite a bit upset. "You! Where were you? I was looking all over for you! I nearly got left behind because of you!"

"Hey hey, relax! We were totally on time!" he said, suddenly shaking his head as he saw the elder get upset.

"You weren't there when I counted everybody!"

"Err... at what time did you count everyone?"

Why would he ask this? What kind of question is that? "Fifteeen. Everybody is supposed to get ready to board the ships at fifteen!"

Salsa... laughed? He laughed? The nerve! He thought he was a friend! He clenched his fists, his stem lowering in front of his face. He pushed it out of his vision so he could continue to glare at him.

"This early? That means nearly two hours sitting in the landing zone doing nothing! Nah... we returned to the landing zone at sixteen. Still a bit early but one hour before departing is more reasonable."

Then, as his words registered, his anger burnt itself out and the obvious registered. "So... I ran around for hours... and almost got left behind... while you were safely in the ship all along?"

"Sums it up." nodded Salsa.

Dandelion blinked a few times. "Err... are you alright Point? You look kind of... weird." He poked the red flowerian, who had went stiff as a board. He blinked again as the red simply fell over like a cardboard cut-out.

"Oh. I got it. Hmmm... talk to you later then."

Point mentally facepalmed, followed by kicking himself repeatedly. Again, mentally because he had frozen up from how utterly stupid he felt at the moment.

* * *

><p>Point could not spend the entire night kicking himself mentally. Mostly because he had to sleep. But also because he could not sleep tonight. In fact, few would sleep tonight. He had told everyone that they would be going on a trip and he was serious about it. Yet here he was, tired because of a dumb reason. The night is really starting well...<p>

"You think Floppy will be mad we got here late?"

Dandelion shrugged, sitting in the corner. Point sighed before staring at the screen. All over the console were Crimson's old notes on how to operate the stupid thing. It was funny. He had never truly appreciated the wonders of auto-pilot until he actually tried to steer the dumb thing. For something on which their entire existence depended upon, it was crazy how little of it they understood. Of course, Aqua actually knew about the thing and through trial and error, both Crimson's and Floppy's notes on the things were starting to be quite exhaustive. In fact, Aqua was apparently wanted to eventually make a manual for future pilots and leaders.

Hmmm... a pilot. A pilot captain, like Olimar? Apparently, hocotatian leaders did not pilot their ships usually, leaving that job to specialized captains and pilots. Maybe someday they'll have enough of a population and enough safety to have specialized pilots too? Hmmm... might be nice. But he will probably not live to see that day.

Oh well...

He checked the radar. Alright... so how does it work? He stared at the interface in front of him. Okay... so he must hit the key, second row from the top, seventh key from the left. Then the one, third row from the bottom, sixtenth from the right.

Alright! There's... lots of green and brown. Okay... according to Aqua's notes, third point next to the nectar stain, this is a birdeye view of the area scanned by the radar. It begin in visual mode by default and he must switch either the radar elevation or the scanning mode.

Geez! How much more complicated can this thing be? How can Aqua deal with all of this stuff? Or Olimar, for the matter?

Now that he thinks about it, no wonder Olimar is so smart if he got to memorize this kind of stuff just to see where he is going in his ship alone. At this moment, he suddenly realized that it made Aqua kind of super smart too. He had... never really thought about it that way. Interesting.

Anyway, change the direction of the radar... enter degrees for rotation... keep in mind position on the hull for erroneous data... blue dots means objects... display refresh in a circular manner every few seconds... passive mode, detecting only objects that emit emissions... active radar must be manually activated...

**_BAOOOOOOM!_**

The entire ship shook. When his stem stopped slapping his nose with his own flower, he looked around, slightly panicked. "WHAT WAS THAT?!"

"Active radar, Point." anwsered the purple flowerian. "Aqua said it sends a huge shockwave something stuff in every direction that then bounce back to the ship and somehow allow us to find what is out there. Don't ask me how it works. Apparently, sufficiently sensitive life-forms and anything with a radar will also be able to know where we are if we use it. Again, don't ask me why. I'm the punch predators in the face guy, not a brainy type."

"She didn't mention it made the entire ship shake like this!"

"Did you set the pulse's intensity?"

Pulse what? Point stared at the screen and read what was on-screen. Oh! Pulse intensity! Must be how strong the radar made its shockwave thingy, right?

"Is three hundred percents a big number?"

From the flat stare he got, he guessed yes. "Try a sane number. Like twenty. I'm surprised you didn't just shake the ship apart. Oh and wake up absolutely every single creature on the planet. I'm thankful none of the predators can fly all the way into orbit. None that we've met yet anyway." From the deadpan, he also guessed that what he did was profoundly stupid.

He adjusted the radar and went at it again. This time, the ship didn't actually shake like crazy, allowing him to actually look at the screen and see the display changing. He checked his notes, in particular what Floppy had told him.

"Hmmm... we're at the destination. The yellow ship is approaching. I think..."

"You think?"

"Well, the display match what was I was told I was supposed to get. So... hmmm... I guess it worked."

A brief silence. Again, Dandelion stared at him as if he was severely lacking in intelligence. Then he remembered the obvious.

"Oh! Oh yeah. Hard to talk if I don't turn on the communications array..."

And again, he had to dig through Crimson's and Aqua's notes. Again, he had to push a lot of keys in what was to him an arcane sequence. How did Crimson ever got used to this thing? What kind of sordid and absurd flowerian mind conceived such a complicated device? Seriously, is piloting a ship this hard or is it just flowerian ships?

Anyway, he finally managed to get the communications array online and after much tinkering, he even got Floppy in all of his glory visible on the main screen, with his beautiful yellow color and large ears! Victory! Seriously, next time anyone try to make fun of Aqua's rambling rants about how the ships work, he'll challenge whoever laughed at her to try and pilot the ship just once. Ought to shut them up.

"Oh! Point! Nice to see that you're here!" Why is he sounding so nervous?

"Y-yeah! We're totally not late!" he replied, trying and failing to hide his nervosity.

"Good coincidence! Neither are we! We totally didn't get stuck trying to get someone out of a bottle after he stupidly dove in trying to recover the nectar at the bottom!"

"And I totally didn't run all over the place looking for fellow reds who were already at the ship!"

Both flowerian elders scratched the back of their heads, feeling stupid. "Anyway... we're here simultaneously. Guess that's the important thing." Floppy straightened himself. "So, is everyone ready?"

"Yep! Told everyone we're going for a trip, which got them all happy and ready! Then I told them it's during the night, which made all of them call me crazy!"

"Oh. So they refused?"

"Nope! They accepted."

"Hmmm... if... you say so." Yeah, Point agreed that it sounded weird, worded like that. "Anyway, you're getting the hang of piloting the ship manually?"

"Errr... I think so?"

"Good enough! I'll send you the coordinates. Try to land in the following hour, okay? The local predators hunt during the day and I'd rather land while they're still sleeping. You know... so we have a chance of not dying horribly?"

"Given predators tend to hunt during the night and that the radars' readings are kind of hard to understand, I'm thinking we'll die horribly anyway but okay."

"Good! I'll see you then! Oh and try not to crash the ship, okay? Aqua kinda get mad when she have to repair the landing gears."

Awkward silence ensued. The good mood of the yellow flowerian slowly erroded and Point fidgeted incomfortably in his seat.

"Hmmm... the top-right note in the corner. You know... how to shut down the communication array?"

"Oh! Thanks!" went Point before checking it out. Okay... so that key... that key... and that one!

The display became blank and the weird background noise ceased. "I think it worked!" cheered the red flowerian, only to remember that with it shut down, the yellow flowerian could no longer hear him. "Oh. Alright..."

He turned to the purple elder. "I... didn't do too badly?"

He shrugged. "I saw worse."

"I'll take it as a compliment."

"Whatever."

* * *

><p>"You know what's crazy?"<p>

"Point..." sighed the purple flowerian.

"Technically, Olimar has only led us for a small proportion of our existence since the Resurrection. Yet, it always feel so odd to go out and explore places without him leading us, you know? It just feels right, having him leading us."

"You've been telling me this just about every single day."

"I mean, that powerful whistle and his voice as he direct us! I always feel like that's missing from our trips all over the planet's surface."

"Every single day, ever since I was plucked!"

The red flowerian blinked a few times as the solder strain flowerian gave him a flat stare, arms crossed. Awkward silence ensued for a fleeting moment.

"Nope! No way I repeat that every single night."

"Yes you do. Every day after we're done and after we board the ship, you go on and on about the same thing. It didn't interest me when Olimar was leading us, it doesn't interest me now."

"Am not repeating it every night! Am not!"

"Am too!"

"Am not!"

"Am too!"

"Am not!"

"Am too!"

"Am not!"

"Will you two please keep it quiet in there?" Salsa suddenly yelled, poking his head into the cockpit. "What are you? Freshly plucked? Some of us are trying to catch some z's! We don't want to be half-asleep on our trip!"

Salsa returned to his quarters while mumbling something about Point and Dandelion not acting their age. Both flowerians found themselves suddenly very embarassed as they were reminded that despite technically being elders, they were both technically very young. Being cloned from adults, meaning accelerated aging, and low life expectancy due to PNF-404's generally hostile environment tended to make the two forget at times that they were still very child-like despite being ancient by flowerian standarts.

Normally, everyone would go back to sleep but as it stand, Point went back to struggling with the ship's rather temperamental computer. While wondering yet again how Aqua managed to deal with this kind of stuff, he finally managed to successfully deploy the landing gear and then maneuver the ship into a relatively smooth landing.

**_BAAAAM!_**

Relatively being the key word.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" screamed Salsa in pure terror, poking his head back into the cockpit.

"I just landed the ship! Dandelion, are there any blinky lights on the console's right side? I'd check but my teeth are still rattling from the impact, making my vision blurry."

"Hmmmm... they're all green. Is that a good sign?"

"Oh? Yesss-! I managed to land the ship without using auto-pilot and without breaking the landing gear!"

Both his fellow red flowerian and the purple flowerian stared at him wide-eyed. In particular, the later stood up and spoke in a voice that though quiet as a whisper, conveyed the sheer extent of how much this was upsetting him. "You did what?"

"Well, auto-pilot is designed to keep the ship in orbit and not get us anywhere near the surface during the night so I kind of had to override it. You know... for our trip."

"Yay! We're going on a trip!"

While Salsa happily returned to his quarters, Dandelion just stood there, silent. It slowly registered to Point that he might be genuinely upset. "Errr... I didn't crash the ship?"

"Next time we run into a bulbear, I'm throwing you at it. More exactly, at its mouth. When it's open."

Awkward silence. "Hmmm... I think... we should gather outside."

So there he went, throwing himself out of the cockpit. "Hey everybody! We're there! TRIP TIME!"

Cheers from everybody. Morale's good. Or everyone was mimicking good morale to hide the fact that they were terrified out of their minds. Good either way. Point proudly made his way toward the access ramp, the drumming of feet against metal indicating that everyone was following along. He pushed the exit door open and then, went down the slide.

"WHEEEE!"

_bam_

"OOF!"

_splat!_

And given it's dark outside, did not see the end of the ramp, causing him to trip and faceplant. He didn't even make a step before his face met the dirt. This trip sure is starting well...

Wincing, he got back to his feet, straightened his nose... and faceplanted again as he forgot to get out of the way of his fellow reds as they slid down the access ramp, landing right into his back and smashing him into the dirt.

This is a gooood sign. Given how well it's going already, Point is absolutely sure nothing may possibly go wrong from there.

Getting up again, this time getting clear of the landing gear, he straightened his nose again and heard the large thumping noise that came from Dandelion and his purple squad getting out of the ship. The landing zone was fairly dark, with only moonlight filtering through to reveal what seemed to be a fairly thick jungle. The only really notable source of light was the light filtering out from inside the ship's access doors.

That and from the yellow ship's own access doors, as it landed about half a minute later. Much more smoothly too. Floppy probably got more experience piloting ships. Or got the computer's stubborn auto-pilot to cooperate.

Anyway! As everyone took position into neat little ranks, Point placed himself in front and then begun to count. All thirty from Dandelion's squad, a solid eighty volunteers among the reds. Neat little number there.

"Alright everybody, ready for a neat little trip?" Everybody cheered. Good. "Exceptionally, we'll be exploring this place at night. Floppy will be leading this time. Our job will be to beat up any meanies that try to make him a snack!"

"Hmmm... since this is night, won't that make for a lot, and I mean a LOOOOOOT of meanies?" said a relatively recently plucked red, head and stem tilted as he asked his question.

"Actually, according to Floppy, most of the scary bad guys sleep during the day around here, so we'll be safe!" Or so he hoped. Not that he doesn't want to trust Aqua's new radar systems but... well... her notes boiling down to guesses like "squiggly red line = tropical storm line?" did not exactly fill him with confidence. But that, he kept to himself.

Soon enough, here came Floppy and his own group. He just waltzed by as though he didn't care, in that totally smooth manner of his that was just typical. Of course, as it was dark, his totally cool walk act ended with him tripping over Point's feet and faceplanting. Point would have laughed at the usually totally radical flowerian actually looking like a fool but he was kind of busy due to having faceplanted himself. Again.

As he straightened his long pointy nose, again, he decided to give his fellow elder a worried glance. "This is totally a horrible idea."

"Now that I think about it, maybe I could have thought this through a bit more..." admitted the yellow flowerian.

"You think? I wish I had a hocotatian suit with all of its weird glowy bits to light the way. Or at least, some whites. Ability to see in the dark and all. Now that I think about it... why didn't Aqua think of making lamps or something?"

"We never hang beyond sunset on the surface and beside, all the caves we explore are usually well-lit. It just never came up..."

Point sighed, rolling his eyes. "I really hope you know what you're doing..."

"I really hope so too..." hearing Floppy admit that shrunk his confidence in this little trip even more. Unfortunately, they had spoken at full volume in front of everybody. So... hmmm... yeah... everyone had their strain's equivalent of a big frown on their faces and general expressions that spoke of a rather intense desire to dig themselves back into the earth and take on a pre-plucked fetal position.

"Err... we're going on a trip?"

"... yay?" went a single red at the back.

All hail Point and Floppy, the only flowerian leaders dumb enough to land their ships at night! Sigh...

So... hmmm... yeah.

Frankly, the jungle was kind of... not what he had expected. There was a rather startling lack of bulborbs throwing themselves out of bushes to end his life two steps into it. Given it was night time, it kind of gave him hope that they'd live through it and that Floppy's guess regarding his new radar's readings hadn't been entirely made up.

Unfortunately, he found out, to his dismay, that his usual tendency to trip and fall on his face kind of became exponentially worse when he wasn't seeing where he was going.

_splat!_

"Ow."

_splat!_

"Ow."

_splat!_

"Ow."

"Can you come up with something different, like 'owie' or 'ouch'?" deadpanned Dandelion. How did he manage not to trip when he couldn't see where he was going? Seriously!

_splat!_

"Ow."

"Hey! How about something fancy! Like 'oh no! I fell again', 'Foiled again', or 'My non-existent sense of balance failed me again'?"

"Floppy, that isn't funny. I can't feel my nose anymore and I think I got dirt all over my flower! It feels disgusting!"

"Just shake your stem a bit. Duh. Common sense." Point thought of some words to describe Floppy at the moment. None of them were exactly compliments so he kept them to himself.

Fortunately, no one commented further because Point tripping over something and falling flat on his face kind of got old really fast for everybody except the most easily amused of the recently plucked, who kept giggling stupidly every time he faceplanted. That also got old fast.

"You know... that trip is kind of boring." said someone in the back. Point instantly cursed that particular flowerian for tempting fate. He couldn't see who had said that since it was so dark but he bet it was someone he didn't like very much.

Though... yeah, this is kind of boring. They've been walking and they've not seen anything interesting. They saw a lot of grass and... err... a lot of grass. You can see grass everywhere. So... yeah, it was boring.

Unfortunately, it also meant that Floppy was going to run his mouth to try and liven things up.

"So, Point... you and Aqua... you never told me you were kind of a thing."

Of course, he had to pick the most embarassing subject he possibly could have picked. And while everybody was stuck in the dark, in the middle of a jungle that was as boring as it was dangerous.

"I mean... didn't you always used to criticize Aqua's decision to identify as female? Or her research into our flowers' natural functions? I was quite surprised to see you pollinate her the other day!"

Even if there hadn't been a root under his feet right now, he would have faceplanted from Floppy's words alone. As he once again stood up, he gave a death glare to the yellow elder. Who either did not see it in the dark or did not care.

"Floppy, that isn't what happened!"

"Oh! Ooh! I know! It's the other meaning of love, right?" He did not know who said that but from the rather nasal, high-pitched tone, it was probably a recently plucked yellow. He couldn't see who it was exactly due to how dark it was but he knew somehow it was one he didn't particularly like. At least, if he did like him before he definitely didn't anymore.

"I think there's a song about that! I think there's in fact a lot of songs about that!" Oh no. Oooooh no. They're not going to sing a song about Floppy confusing his nasty fight with Aqua over their respective failures to cope with Crimson's death as something else entirely. This is just wrong on so many levels.

"W-what's all this nonsense about love?" he couldn't keep the horror out of his voice as he glared at his respective elder. Even in the dark, he guessed where he was.

"Well, after your little stunt, I did a little research in the computer records and I found a new subject in the R section of our encyclopedia! Romance! It was called romance! It was so cute!" A little chuckle from the yellow elder, everyone collectively going "D'aaaw."

But not Point. He faceplanted again. There was definitely no roots under his feet this time but he faceplanted anyway. Rather than get up, he facepalmed. "Hmmf ff hmm!"

"Point, we can't understand you when you got your face in the dirt." Dandelion deadpanned, finally deciding to join in. Why had he just let all this nonsense slide? What was wrong with everyone?

He pushed himself out of the dirt and tried again. "We're half-plant! We don't have actual physical genders! We feed our ships organic matter to produce more of ourselves! Why, why would our computers have a section detailing romance of a species that doesn't have reproductive urges to begin with?"

The entire group stopped. Many scratched the back of their heads. Stems waved back and forth slowly. Dandelion played with the hair-like protusions on his head. Floppy scratched his chin. Someone at the back of the formation coughed once.

"But it was so cuuuuute!" whoever said that is no longer Point's friend.

"Floppy, are we actually looking for something in particular or are we just going to flunder in the dark like idiots while theorizing about something that you interpreted the entirely wrong way?"

"Well... usually when we explore a new location, we kind of go all over the place until we see something neat or shiny. I... thought it would go that way like usual."

Face. Meet. Palm. "Floppy. It's night. We can't see anything. We could have passed the greatest pile of shinies just now and we wouldn't know it. Your idea was totally terrible."

"You're just upset because you got no sense of balance and keep landing on your face!" He wish the yellow who said that gets an encounter of the culinary type with a yellow wollywog soon.

Yeah, that was going to be a looooong trip.

As the routine of wandering aimlessly in the dark while Point tripped all over the place resumed, boredom eventually returned as well. Thankfully, instead of Floppy running his mouth, the group resorted to the more traditional flowerian method of overcoming boredom. Namely, singing.

"Going on a trip with friends!" _splat!_ "Ow." "Going on a trip with friends!" _splat!_ "Ow." "Always together, on new adventuuuuures!" _splat!_ "OW!"

Dandelion hummed a pleasant rythm along as everyone sang along. Funny coincidence that Point's falls happen to be timed with the song! Or is it the other way around? Regardless, he happily hummed to himself, the other purples quickly joining and giving a neat background melody as reds and yellows sang together.

The trip might have begun a bit rough and well, it doesn't quite involve finding quite a lot of neat stuff but hey, it finally got fun in the end! So it was worth it after all. Point still wished it involved faceplanting less though.

"Hey! I found something!" called a red at the front of the formation, having finally touched something.

The entire group froze as they tried to see what was it that had been found. The red, a particularly energic newcomer, did the red equivalent of a wide, youthful smile as he poked the thing. In the moonlight, it was rather hard to see but it looked big! "I bet it will produce lots of seeds when brought back to the ship! It's so squishy! It's so neat! It's so-"

He saw the pair of enormous eyes that opened and glared at him. "... it's so scary."

"RUN!" No one really knew who yelled that but everyone agreed.

And as the group turned around and ran as fast as their little legs could allow them to, the characteristic roar of a bulborb filled the air, a creature that was definitely nocturnal. And as if on cue, a stampede of heavy steps indicated it had just awakened its pack.

"YOU SAID THE CREATURES WERE DIURNAL!" yelled Point even as he ran as fast as he could.

"I THOUGHT THAT TOO!" cried Floppy, tears streaming as pure terror allowed him to somehow keep up with the faster red flowerian.

Dandelion was totally not panicking and running away like a coward. He had simply assessed the situation to be beyond his abilities and was performing a tactical retreat. That he was sweating like crazy and had his heart feeling like it wanted to pound its way out his chest in an approximative equivalent of panic didn't meant he actually was panicking. Seriously, he is totally not panicking.

"RE-RETREAT!" he totally didn't scream in terror either.

Of course, running away from one bulborb is one thing. Running away from a full pack, during the night? Good luck! So yeah, on top of tripping all over the place and generally not managing to escape with any kind of real speed, there was the cold, harsh truth that Dandelion and his squad found that their naturally slower speed meant escape would be impossible.

Dandelion was prepared for this. It wasn't the first time he would stay behind to fight what was supposed to be an impossible to win fight. But usually, when he did this, his fellow flowerians would be able to make it, allowing him to go to his fate with no regrets, whatever that fate may be. Right now, due to how dark it was, he noticed to his growing horror that they tripped and stumbled sufficiently to make no more progress than him and his squad. This... was slightly not good.

"You're not gonna make it!"

Point's eyes widened as he saw the figure of Dandelion turn around and heard the purples' heavy stomps as they stopped running, turning to face their foes. "What are you doing, Dandelion?!"

"Buying you time to escape!"

Normally, he'd take the offer gladly but he faceplanted again. And he was not the only one as a chorus of cries of pain and panic as well as the sounds of impacts against the dirt filled the air. No one was going to escape at this rate.

Despite his heart practically leaping out of his chest and the fact that he was trembling, he called out to his fellow reds. "Take position! Line formation! Now!"

Now it was Dandelion's turn to be baffled. "Err... I said I'd buy you guys time to escape."

"In the dark like this, while we stumble over our own feet? Yeah right. No. We... we..." He gulped down and then got a hold of himself. "We stand and we fight."

The pounding of tiny feet ceased completely. A hand settled on Point's shoulder and he glanced back to see the yellow elder staring at the approaching bulborb pack, a determined air.

"You're... not running either?"

"I got us all in this mess. I'm gonna get us out of it."

Point stood forward alongside his fellow reds. Dandelion cracked his fingers while Salsa rolled his shoulders, preparing for the imminent battle. Fighting bulborbs is always a messy affair. How many won't make it back to the ship? Will anyone survive? Point chased away all those thoughts. He focused on the present. Fight and survive. That was all he needed to think about now.

... or so he thought as an absurd night became even more absurd.

An ear-splitting roar echoed through the night as something huge, truly huge, tore itself out of the earth. The bulborbs let out cries of terror as whatever the thing was, it rose high into the air sufficiently to be illuminated clearly by the moonlight. It was right out of a nightmare, a demonic hybrid of a snake and a worm with huge claws and fangs, spikes all over. It had snatched a huge bulborb in its jaws and with a single motion, split it in two by slamming it into the ground. Though no one really saw the result in the dark, the sickening crunch and gooey sounds mixed with the bulborb's dying whimper made it clear what had happened.

The bulborbs dispersed, letting yips and squeals of terror as they did.

Every flowerian was still as a statue, not saying a single word. Point's heartbeat was deafening to his ears, pounding fast and hard. He wished, desesperately wished that the new monster, whatever it was, could not see well in the dark and that if it did, it would ignore them if they stood completely still.

Oh... oh... it's staring at him. It got eight eyes! Blue, glowing eyes! He doesn't really know about the expression monsters can take but...

It roared at them. It had seen them. They were all going to die.

"Fate smiles upon the brave." Dandelion chanted as he lept forward just as the monster charged. The claws somehow missed him and he found himself atop its face, right below one of the greater eyes.

"THE STRONG LIVE WITH GUILT!" he screamed as he smashed his fist and stem into the eye with all of his strength. And given this was Dandelion, the results were as impressive as usual ; the eyeball deformed and was pierced, ichor flying and the worm-like monster letting out a howl of agony.

It was how he dealt with terror, with the horrors of battle. Dandelion quoted poetry, sayings, just came up with stuff mid-battle. Every action came punctuated with words, as though to add a sense of purpose to the chaos. Frankly, it all sounded kind of melodramatic and cheesy. However, Point was too busy craving reburrying himself into the dirt and taking the flowerian equivalent of the fetal position to laugh.

He also knew it meant that despite his desire to scream in a high-pitched tone and run away as fast as his tiny legs could allow him to, it was time for him to fulfill his role as leader. Dandelion will lead his purples with skill and courage, as he always did. The reds are panicked, as are the yellow. It is time for them to act. How, how did Olimar and Crimson manage to keep so calm in the face of all those monsters?

Floppy put two fingers in his mouth and blew. The whistling caused every stem to straighten. The whistle. The call to assemble. And in this case, the call to battle.

"Yellows! To the right! Half-circle!" called out Floppy.

"Reds! To the left! Rectangle!" followed Point. He found himself wondering how he managed not to stutter out of fear.

No flowerian, not even Crimson himself had ever won a battle by himself. Even the mightiest flowerians were weak compared to the horrors that walked PNF-404's surface. But if flowerians worked together, they could overcome anything.

That was the one thing Point suddenly remembered and believed. As terrified as he might be, as trembling as he may before this new beast... he had seen Emperor Bulblax, he had seen Titan Dweevil himself. And yet, he was still alive. He had survived them. He could survive this thing. Even as the thoughts of his impending doom rattled his mind, he remembered that he had witnessed greater horrors and yet, lived through them. And through this, his trembling finally ceased.

The beast shook off Dandelion. Two members of his squad helped him to his feet quickly as they all stepped back. Point's fingers twitched as he stared at the beast.

Timing is key, he remembered. Even the largest, meanest predator will not harm you if they're too busy hopping all over the place clawing at their own faces in pain.

The beast leaned forward. It dove. It mouth probably had a thousand fangs, all looking like razors. He almost choked from the fear as it threatened to grip him and paralyze him. Paralysis means death. Movement means life. He must not fail to move.

"JUMP!"

"NOW!"

It was not time for him to fall still, to die. He did not fail to move. He leaped. And with him, his fellow flowerians as well as Floppy and the yellow flowerians. Most to the sides to dodge.

Despite his better judgement, Point followed Floppy in his forward leap, like many others. The beast found itself with its various eyes suddenly covered in half-plant critters. It could not stop, as it was mid-dive, gravity and inertia having its way with it. This proved to be a painful experience for the impressively sized predator as the tiny flowerians used feet, fists, and stems to mercilessly pound on its face.

One wouldn't think of it looking at him but reds like Point had a justified reputation when it came to fighting. Sure, Point did not have the huge muscles and sheer weight of Dandelion and other purples but what he lacked in sheer physical attributes, he compensated in sheer ferocity. It also helped that whenever he experienced sheer, total terror and running away while screaming wasn't an option, he channelled all of his fear into his punches. Oh and of course, the physical fitness inherent to him being a red flowerian kind of helped too.

Thus, as he smashed into the top of the beast's right outter fang, the thin border of skin just above it namely, it caused a small mark. Then he punched again. And again. The mark turned into a nasty gash. Then the skin broke under the pressure, a thin flow of red leaking out. Fists and stem slammed, the small cut becoming wider, wider. Gore splattered over his face and fists and with a good whipping motion from his stem, he finally cut off loose a large chunk of flesh.

Though it was an impressive feat of strength given how tough the beast's skin was, it was still a minor injury. Of course, if Point had been alone, the monster would have found this to sting significantly but would have otherwise shrugged it off... which led to how flowerians overcame the predators of this world.

Sure, a single cut like this one, even deep like this, was nothing. But Point was part of a large group of over a hundred flowerians all clinging to the beast's face. All together, even if only a small portion of them managed to cut in as deep as Point did, the cumulative damage was enough to turn the beast's face raw and red with gore.

The horrible beast roared in pain, shaking its head violently, sending flowerians flying everywhere. Point held on for dear life, grabbing into the torn skin of the monster with all of his might but his fingers slipped due to the speed and strength of the monster's struggle. The world spun for a moment before a splitting headache told him he had just landed. For a moment, he just laid down there, the world spinning incontrollably...

Whistling! Floppy was back on his feet. "Look alive, Point!"

He lept back on his feet as everyone gathered in a tight circle. The large beast roared and then, smashed its face into the earth before burrowing into it. Everyone gathered, some helping those who had fallen in harsh, painful ways. Trembling, the flowerians all looked around while Dandelion tried to see if there were any signs of where the monster was going.

"Did... did we scare it off?" Point did not know who said that. He recognized the voice but his mind was too focused on trying to overcome the panic that was gripping his body.

Everyone expected the worm-like predator to emerge again but after a short moment, Point could finally hear himself breathing, his heartbeat no longer loud enough to deafen him to everything else. He let out a loud sigh as the adrenaline finally begun to drain. Oh! He had almost not noticed his nose was again squashed. He straightened it, making sure it pointed forward and turned to his fellow reds.

"Alright. You all did a good job! We sure shown that big meanie who's b-"

The earth crumbled under his feet. In fact, it crumbled under everyone's feet. Yelps of surprise turned into screams of terror. Point realized one of said screams belonged to him. Largely because suddenly he was surrounded by rippled, fleshy walls with large, intimidating fangs at the top, like organic fence. And he knew all too well what that meant.

"No no no NO NO NO!" pure, sheer panic gripped him. In fact, it gripped almost everyone as they scrambled to climb out of the way.

Only for the chomping noise and the sudden darkness as the fences, truly jaws, closing themselves, to confirm to everybody the awful truth. The worm thing had tunnelled right under their feet and had chomped upward. Which meant that Point's worst fear was about to come to pass.

A chorus of panicked cries and screams filled the air but the ground was unfortunately literally disintegrating underneath them. The red flowerian tried to make his way toward the exit, or at least he thought it was the correct direction, it was hard to tell since he could see absolutely nothing, but he found that he was stepping on something that said "ouch!". Another flowerian. Then he found himself covered in what probably was drool, which made him feel sick. And you know, he would be okay with this being a big nightmare and him waking up back on the ship.

Unfortunately, the very last sound he had wanted to hear came to his ears. A gulping noise. He found himself tripping, backward, his stem whipping against somebody's face. For a moment, he found himself in free fall before one, or rather a dozen, fellow flowerians suddenly shoved him against something that felt as disgusting as it probably was fleshy.

"OW!" "NOOOOO!" "My face!" "Get your foot off my stem!" "Waaaah! I wanna go hoooome!"

"Don't panic! Don't panic!" called Dandelion. Point tried to scream at him to do highly painful and unpleasant acts to himself but with his face smashed into what was probably some monster's esophagus, all that came out were a bunch of muffled, angry-sounding squeals.

"I-I'm too young to diiiiie! I'm only two weeks-old!"

"I was plucked yesterday! I was told this would be a fun trip!"

"Can't... breathe..." went Floppy, eyes widened. "Stop... pulling... MY EARS!"

Sobbing and screaming answered him, followed by whoever had his stem stuck against his ear to pull even harder. Floppy was amazed how things managed to somehow get worse. Still, he figured, it couldn't get worse now.

Of course, the yellow flowerian should have known better than to tempt fate like this. The fleshy walls begun to ripple and squeeze. Screams of panic were joined by screams of pain. Point, in particular, found himself with his nose crushed in ways he had never imagined it could be... which was saying something given how clumsy he was.

"HMMF! HMMM! MMMH!"

"WHAT? I DIDN'T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING YOU SAID!" yelled Dandelion, trying to get himself heard in the chorus of sobs and screams. He cringed as he recognized one of the sobs as belonging to a fellow purple and not a recently plucked one at that. Was he the only one who cared about dying with any shred of dignity?

"YOUR IDEA WAS TOTALLY TERRIBLE!" somebody yelled at the yellow elder. He actually agreed, for once but instead of anwsering, he let out a yip of pain as whoever was stuck next to him almost tore off his ears. Seriously, this was painful.

"I swear, I'm gonna haunt you! Haunt you!" who said that? No one knew. It was too dark and everyone was too busy being crushed to death.

"You idiot! We're all gonna die! There will be no one to haunt!"

"I DON'T WANNA DIE!"

"DO YOU THINK I WANT TO EITHER?!"

"I hate this jungle! I hate this planet! I hate you all, guys!"

Point pondered if his entire skeleton had been turned to powder and his flower, completely torn off at this point. Frankly, considering how long this was taking, most probably. Didn't predators swallow their prey quickly, anyway? Was this monster somehow getting revenge for how they had hurt its face? What a jerk! They were only trying to survive! He leaped at them first!

Floppy was by now, seriously sick of this situation. He was currently being crushed against his friends, bathed in screams and sobs, some of which were probably his. He didn't know. Could it get worse? He didn't care anymore. He just wanted out so badly of this situation that he'd actually welcome death freeing him from it. If anything, maybe that jerk to his right would stop pulling on his ears.

"YUCK! YUUUUCK!" If anything, the smell was the worst part of it. The stench was so bad that even if he stopped breathing using his nose and used only his flower, it still invaded his brain and made him feel sick. This is the pits. Seriously, why did he choose to come to this forsaken dump?

Then, as suddenly as it had started, the crazy trashing ceased. Point lost whatever dignity he had left and burst into tears. It probably meant they had reached the thing's stomach and he was going to suffer firsthand that fate Aqua detailed to him, regarding flowerians eaten by predators. He didn't want to die. Not here, not like this. He regretted all of the mean things he had said to Floppy, to Salsa, to all his friends. He regretted having been so much of a killjoy when everyone had just wanted to have fun.

He did not know how long he just laid there, sobbing, having completely given up. But eventually, he realized that... he could still breathe. The stench was overpowering but somehow... he could breathe. And he was not covered in acid. Oh sure, there was all this disgusting drool but no acid. He also heard less cries of despair and pain. In fact, ever so slowly, the agony on his back begun to go away.

Somebody grabbed his stem and pulled. That... did not feel good at all. But it had the intended effect of forcing him back on his feet.

Panting, some muffled sobs, somebody whipping his stem back and forth out of panic fast enough to actually make noise. Something was... different.

"What... happened?" Dandelion broke the silence.

"Beats me." said somebody, probably a yellow as Point did not recognize his voice. "Is it me or is it... kind of quiet in here?"

"I wouldn't know. All I know is that whoever pulled on my ears like this, I'm killing him. Seriously, I don't know if I'm gonna die later anyway via digestion. I'm killing the jerk who tried to take off my ears." The situation was so absurd, so unreal that the red elder didn't even found himself realizing how utterly convinced he was going to die Floppy must be to actually say such an out of character thing.

It then dawned upon Point that he was hearing himself breathing... but he was not hearing the beast do the same.

"Can someone who is not scared enough that he'll faint in the following seconds confirm for me whenever this monster is breathing or not? Because I'm gonna do so... noooooow." somebody said before promptly fainting.

Despite his utter terror, Point reached out and felt something squishy. He instantly repelled... and then, tentatively, poked it once. Then twice. Then he did so harder.

"HEY!"

"Oh. Sorry." he said quickly. Hmmm... a bit to the left then? He reached out, felt nothing, stepped forward...

_splat!_

"OOOoooOOOW!" he moaned, tears welling in his eyes. That felt even more painful than usual. In fact, it was so painful he just wanted to lay there and lament over his crushed nose.

But it then registered. The floor. The squishy floor. He put his hands against it and then, gathering as much strength as he could, whipped it with his stem. A splitting pain in his flower told him he just tore off a petal from the effort. Joy. Still, he reacted the lack of reaction...

He wasn't the only one who had apparently done this. Sounds of slapping of leaves, buds, and flowers against flesh echoed all around him. The sobs had largely ceased as a realization finally came to the terrified, hurt flowerians.

"You got to be kidding me..." went Dandelion, not believing it himself. "It choked on us. It. Choked. On us."

A giggle. Then another. Then someone started to laugh a bit. Then someone outright burst into laughter. Then another. Then yet another. Soon, everyone was laughing incontrollably. Despite his blinding pain, Point was unable to stop it either even though laughing made his chest hurt even more.

But then, this was just stupid. Who had heard of a predator choking on its prey on this planet and on flowerians, of all things? This thing... had just choked itself to death with them. If anyone had told him that it could happen, he would have called him a liar. And yet, here he is.

Regardless, as much as it hurts, laughing like this felt... felt good actually. It felt as though a huge weight was lifted off his shoulders. He... he wasn't going to die, after all. He... he was going to live. It was such a relief he almost resumed crying. Except he didn't, because frankly, he had enough emotion for one night. Frankly, he's gonna spend the entire day on the ship. Yep, he's gonna stay all day on the ship, in perfect safety.

"So... hmmmm... is everyone alright?" he called.

Unsure moans and groans, a few "Yeah..." came too. Given he couldn't see a thing, this did not help at all. "Err... one at a time please."

Everyone spoke up, one by one, some more weakly than others. He mentally counted and... and... okay, this is unbelievable. Everyone is accounted for? He counted mentally again... and yep, no one died. Everyone got swallowed... and no one died. Wow. This is... just wow.

"I can't believe it. We're okay... all of us."

"Speak for yourself, my ears are killing me." groaned Floppy back to a disbelieving Dandelion.

"So... how do we get out of here?" went Salsa.

Silence. For a moment, Point thought this was a good question as he grabbed his crumpled up nose and straightened it. Well, he tried to ; it was probably broken because it drooped afterward. He also had a feeling that not all of the disgusting liquid on his body was drool anymore. But well, he decided not to pay attention to this for now as the obvious solution came to him. Jaws open and close, right?

"We get to the mouth, we push the jaws open." he suggested.

"That's a great idea!" went Floppy. How did he go from complaining about his ears to being so enthusiastic, all of a sudden? No matter. "But... err... which way is the mouth? I can't see a thing."

And this, Point, Floppy, and Dandelion all thought together, is the lot of their lives. To be given an incredible break by life, somehow, despite this planet hating their guts... only for PNF-404 to yank the carpet off from under their feet and confirm that it truly does hate their guts.

"Do you have any idea where the mouth might be?"

"Beats me. I was busy being spun around like crazy and... not... screaming... in terror. Totally."

"I wanna go home."

"This trip sucks."

"Your idea was terrible, Floppy!"

"Hey! I think this might be a teeth!"

"No, that's my bud. Stop poking it."

"My nose hurts."

"My ears hurts."

"My arm hurts."

"My everything hurts."

"Hey! That makes me think of a song!"

"KEEP IT TO YOURSELF!"

"Hm hm hm hmm hm hmm hm!"

"DON'T HUM IT EITHER!"

"You are all a bunch of freshly plucked children." deadpanned the purple elder.

"Yep!" went a large number of his fellow flowerians. A particularly high-pitched voice added: "I was plucked yesterday! Life is really weird! Hmmm... is being eaten normal? Is everyone screaming like this normal?"

Dandelion facepalmed. They are going to get nowhere at this rate. Also did someone just hum the nomming song? He normally like to think himself above such things but frankly, if he finds out who did that, he'll punch that someone in the face no matter how freshly plucked.

Floppy figured that since everyone else was busy showcasing why the flowerians had went extinct in the first place, requiring Olimar to resurrect them, he'd lay down and recover from it all. Then he figured that this was really too disgusting a place to do that. Then he found himself craving his bed back at the ship. In fact, he wants home. Badly. And now he's crying. And his ears hurts. And he hate this place! Why did he decide to go here?

No, no. If he break down into tears, if he panic now, they'll never get out of there. Besides, this sound like the punchline to a bad joke. To break just when he manage to get out of danger? Everyone would laugh at him! Well... given they don't break into tears themselves.

No. No more tears, no more cries of terror. They're getting out of here.

Someone must search for the exit and in the dark like this? Only one way to do so. He picked a direction and went that way. The ground was slimy, disgusting, squishy but walk he did. He almost tripped, as it was all rippled, all so weird and uneven. But eventually, he felt the ground rough, going upward... the tongue? He moved... moved... and hit a wall. But not any type of wall. He poked it a few times and... this is really hard. Like teeth!

"Hey everyone! Can you hear me? Follow my voice! I'm at the exit!"

Point and the others turned. They could not see anything... but they could hear Floppy's voice. And they heard him as he begun to hum a song. Thankfully, it was not the nomming song. Dandelion would have probably followed his voice just to punch him in the face if it had been the case. But still, follow it they did.

"One two one two breathe! One two one two breathe!"

Moonlight greeted the flowerians as they lifted the upper jaw open and marched out. The fresh night air was the single best smell they had ever felt and the breeze felt simply divine. They were alive, they were all alive! It felt good to be alive! Someone hummed something, then another... and soon, the entire group sang. They were alive! It felt so good to be alive! So they sang, sang of their happiness, for they were alive!

Despite his hurting body, Point could not keep himself. Even Dandelion had joined in, humming a surprisingly beautiful rythm to it all. Their bodies hurt all over and they probably had a ton of injuries but frankly? No one cared at the moment.

Of course, the fact that they were suddenly outside made them realize a few things. They had never been outside during the night and before, they had been busy marching, being bored. But now that the flowerians looked at the world of PNF-404 during night time... it was... beautiful. The pale light of the moon over the great leaves, the long shadows, the shades of blue, orange, and other surreal colors, the feeling of different depth in everything... it was unlike anything they had ever seen.

For the first time, Point felt glad he had accepted to follow Floppy in this trip. To witness PNF-404 by night and live... that alone had been worth it all. He turned to his friend, finally able to see the yellow equivalent of a smile on his face and the wonder in his eyes, wonder which were echoed through everyone's expressions, even Dandelion's.

And the sounds... distant insects, the relative silence. It was all so... peaceful. So peaceful. Almost dreamy.

"This is so pretty..." went the red flowerian. "I just wish... we had something to bring back, to show everyone."

The large upper jaw slammed shut as everyone was now out. He turned and stared at the corpse of the monstrous beast... and then, it finally hit him.

"So... how many seeds do you think this thing is worth?" he asked aloud.

Floppy and the others stared at the thing... and slowly, their eyes widened in realization.

* * *

><p>For days to come, Point wondered if they had been insanely unlucky or on the contrary, lucky. The trip back to the ship, dragging the monstrous worm-like thing by the head through the jungle, had been as peaceful as peaceful could be. Turn out, the radar hadn't lied after all ; apart from the worm thing and a single pack of bulborbs, all of the creatures in the area truly slept at night after all.<p>

Indeed, when they finished dragging and processing the giant worm predator, splitting its body between the two ships, morning had already begun to come and when they finally left, strange creatures woke up and came to their landing zone, hoping for a quick snack. Those predators left the clearing disappointed, needless to say.

How many new seeds could be created from the corpse they had brought back? He didn't know, frankly. Dozens, easily. That thing had been huge!

"-and that was that." finished Floppy. Oh yeah! Floppy is currently talking to him through the communications channel. He'd better pay attention. "We're still recovering from our first trip, our medical bay is still full with lots of injured people but still, I finished sending the report to Aqua and she agree with us that we definitely need to explore the place in-depth."

"You want us to come again? That was fun!"

"Sure! Shouldn't involve giant worm thing encounters this time though, I promise!"

The red flowerian sure hoped so ; running into a giant worm-like thing and nearly dying, only surviving because the thing's sloppy eating habits caused it to choke is not an experience he's eager to repeat. Everything else, though? Sure. Well, except the bulborb pack encounter. That was also scary and unpleasant. Actually? Nevermind. He just think the next trip can't possibly go worse. Which is enough for him, actually! "I'll see you next time then!" He checked the notes on the sides of the console quickly. Okay, that key... then that one... then that one!

Well, guess that wraps it up for now. What an adventure that had been! Not the best ever, in fact a pretty dysmal one but no one died! Given this is PNF-404, he guess that made that trip a decent one actually. Sure, he got a lot of broken bones, half of his flower's petals torn off, and he'll need repeated trips to the medical bay before he's completely recovered but well, that's a flowerian's life. Personally, he can't wait to see what secrets that strange region that must be explored by night got in store! Given his next trips are giant worm-free, he'll probably live to see said secrets. Probably.

Hmmm... Definitely shouldn't forget to request Aqua to make some kind of light source though before they depart a second time. PNF-404 during night time might be pretty but getting lost in the dark is not a whole lot of fun.

* * *

><p><strong>Fin<strong>


	4. Dissonance

**OFF:** Not many comments, huh? Well, I wrote the interludes mostly because of inspiration so I guess I'm not that bothered in a way.

This chapter is rather long and has a lot of content so I hope it will turn out to have been worth the wait. Be aware that due to the volume of content, individual scenes may vary in atmosphere.

I've actually thought about splitting this into several chapters but since it's technically one story arc with a beginning and end, like previous chapters, I decided to post it as is.

Enjoy!

(If anyone has suggestions for snippets, feel free to say so. More inspiration and ideas is always good!)

* * *

><p><strong>Interlude<strong>

_~4~_

_Dissonance_

* * *

><p>"So... does it contain yolk or mitites?" Salsa asked, shivering.<p>

Point's eyes narrowed as he tried very hard to block out all sound, pushing the side of his head against the shell, listening intently. Salsa and his other friends stood nearby, their expressions hopeful.

"... beats me."

Everyone faceplanted.

"Hey! I did my best! But I really don't know how Floppy can tell between types of eggs, really! Besides, it's not fair. He got those big ears to help him listen!" he complained.

Salsa rolled his eyes as did many of the others. "Tournesol could do it too and he was a red too!"

Point cringed at the chorus of sighs and general disappointment. And this was why he prefered when their games didn't include dares. He always, always lost them. Even if they were safe. The only ones he won involved running around.

"Forget it guys. If you want to eat then just say so. I'll crack them open in no time!"

He hoped that would make them happy. Instead, he was greeted with silence and awkward sideway glances.

"I'd rather not be covered in bugs, thank you." went Salsa.

Oh well. That was a bust. Time to come up with something before someone make another embarassing dare that he will inevitably fail!

Of course, this being PNF-404, he should have known better than to invite fate to humor him with a distraction. Mostly because said distractions tended to be of the scary, hungry, predatory kind. The good news was that it wasn't the case this time. The bad news is that he recognized the group of fellow flowerians that was approaching him.

"Well well well, what do we have here? Hungry but scared of a bunch of harmless eggs?"

The smug tone belonged to an equally smug red flowerian. Frankly, apart from Ageratum, Point did not really know anyone who was really as smug or full of himself as him. Mostly because this kind of attitude tended to result in the tendency to find a friendly bulborb more than eager to fix your social issues forever.

Simply put? The lifespan of jerks on PNF-404 tended to be counted in days, often hours, sometimes minutes.

However, no matter how much Ageratum made it his apparent life mission of making Point's existence miserable, he quickly thrown away any resentment he might feel for him. He may sometimes insult others and be insulted through wishes to have unpleasant encounters with the wild life but he would never wish injury or death for a fellow flowerian, never in a serious manner and never over something as petty as being annoying.

Why can't they be friends, after all? If Ageratum can get all of those reds at his side to be his friends, why do they have to be at each others' throats?

"It's not that. We just don't want to be covered in bugs." Salsa anwsered for him.

The red flowerian snorted arrogantly before waltzing over to the eggs. As he walked near him, Ageratum used his slightly taller and bulkier frame to, ahem, accidentally slam his left shoulder into Point's side, knocking him backward on his behind in a painful manner. Not even the hint of an apology came and when Point looked at his fellow flowerian, he instead saw that he was happy with the painful and rude gesture he had just done.

"Oh, I didn't know that the famous Point would be scared of a bunch of small harmless bugs. Here, let me open these for you."

Was it wrong for him to wish for a repeat of last time to occur? For Ageratum to crack the eggs open only for a swarm of mitites to pounce on him causing him to run around in total panic squealing in an improbably high-pitched tone?

That he found himself wishing for this to happen to another flowerian made Point wonder if there was something wrong with him. Ageratum might have an attitude but they should be friends...

It was all irrelevent in the end. The taller flowerian fearlessly, or maybe recklessly, smashed the eggs open, spilling their content all over the place. Delicious yellow yolk was exposed, making many of the flowerians do their strain's equivalent of licking their lips.

"If you guys have a problem, go to me and I'll fix it." he then posed in an overly dramatic way that made him look silly in Point's opinion before waltzing as if he was somehow at the top of the food chain. He couldn't help but notice the fellow flowerians at his side snickering and pointing at him as they walked at him. What for? Really, what was that all about?

"I really don't get why he acts like this." he said, more for himself than anyone else as Salsa helped him to his feet. Sucking noises and cheers confirmed that the others had already begun gorging themselves. Frankly, whatever appetite he might have had for yolk had vanished after that little scene.

"No idea, either. But he sure was cool-looking!" Both he and Salsa looked at the young flowerian who had said that.

"Yeah, he's always all cool-looking. Wonder how he manages it."

"I think he kind of overdid it. And well, I don't know why he knocked me down." Why did they stare at him after he said that? It was as though they were not believing him.

"You always fall down Point. I've seen you fall down on your face the other day!" went someone in the back.

"Yeah, I heard he always fall down like this!" another.

"Maybe you just tripped?"

He had felt Ageratum slamming his shoulder into his side, very painfully and obviously. This was not him tripping. It was not even him falling down due to hitting someone. It was not even being tripped. It just... felt wrong.

He sighed. Salsa had obviously noticed his mood because he spoke up. "Look, you're the leader right? You can probably talk to him later. And well, the egg idea wasn't that fun after all. Why don't we go climb on top of some giant flowers and look around?"

Point found himself smiling. He'd definitely like that. He didn't like to think of Ageratum and of incidents like these. He prefered playing with his friends and just enjoying his days, like he usually did. So he decided to do just that. It wouldn't be a few hours until he check on everyone in the new quarry so he had plenty of time.

* * *

><p>Aqua stared at the console that acted as the interface connecting her to the ship's computer. The ships... her life as well as that of all those she care about are linked to those mysterious onion-shaped creations. She remember when she thought of them as some alive entities during her younger days. Even though she was now much older, especially by flowerian standarts, she could not help but feel overwhelmed.<p>

Her ancestors had once travelled the stars not unlike Olimar and his kind. Once, those same onion-shaped vessels that were her kind's homes had braved deep space to settle down on the harsh surface of PNF-404. The last hopes of a dying culture, exterminated by a rival one.

The idea that billions of her kind once lived in perfect safety on dozens of worlds was dizzying to say the least. She could barely imagine how life back then could have been. Entire colonies of her kind, all as exotic and alien as Louie's descriptions of Hocotate were... it was an almost unbelievable image. The ships alone were amazing... to think that her people once had entire cities and thousands of ships!

Frankly, she had difficulty picturing it. She had known the wild environments of PNF-404 her entire life. A city... she could barely imagine how it would look like. She could construct parts of what one might look like using her growing knowledge of things but it was so distant from her lifestyle that she wasn't sure she'd be ever be able to grasp fully the concept unless she someday go to Hocotate.

That was an idea. But... that would either mean repairing the faster than light drives on their ships or following Olimar home, if he someday returns. And well... even if she do figure out how to repair the faster than light drives, the cold harsh truth is that every ship is sorely needed on PNF-404. Without their bio-engineering processing facilities and the cloning devices, her kind will not survive. Their population pool is too small. Even if her kind somehow restarted breeding the old-fashioned way, the rate of attrition is too much for their numbers to handle.

She sighed at that last thought. Being half-plant, the flower on the end of the stem that adorns every flowerian's head serve both to breathe and breed. If pollination of the flower could be achieved, seeds could be produced the natural way. She had... never dared test that point, though. It just sounded somehow embarassing and well, data on her species's physiology had not been encouraging. Flowerians born from the cloning devices already required a period of adaptation before they could be considered sufficiently independant. And even during that technically short time, they were incredibly vulnerable and weighted down their people as a whole unless they were led carefully. She had read that it took entire years, more time than even Crimson had been alive at the time of his death, for a naturally born flowerian to reach maturity.

Simply put, she did not think that they could create a safe environment for flowerian children. Not to accomodate them for entire years. This world was too unforgiving for that.

Still, her runaway train of thought brought her to the incomfortable matter of her people's future. Or lack thereof. Olimar had resurrected them and as long as the ships' cloning devices and engines will hold out, she and all those she care about will live. However, she knows that the day the cloning devices and the engines of the ships fail, their future will fail with them. Natural reproduction will never compensate for the loss of the cloning devices and with nowhere on this world that could be considered safe from nocturnal predators, if the ships cannot take off then they will surely all die. Sure, they'll likely survive longer than the original colonists did, thanks to the skills they learnt from Olimar but the sad truth is that ultimately, they will die.

At first, she had thought that when that day will come, her people might survive by escaping to that strange new region found the other day where predators sleep during the night instead of the day but then, she quickly figured out that it was merely swapping a problem for another. Then, she had thought about maybe returning to the original colony compound, to rebuild it. Sure, it had been compromised once before but with the bulborb population culled, probably the area would be safe for some time? Another non-viable idea ; bulborbs breed very quickly. In the time that the first naturally born flowerian generation will be ready for this world's challenge, the bulborbs will have bred to a level sufficient to level the compound again.

Problems on top of problems. And as impossible as they seemed to solve, the more she knew, the more she realized they weren't... though in a way, this was the source of her sighs and depressing thoughts lately.

The solution was so obvious in theory. The ships are getting worn down? Repair them, make new ones even. If Olimar could repair his broken ship during the first great war with so few ressources, surely her people can do the same with their own? And there lies the main issue. Obvious in theory but not so much in pratice.

Materials weren't that much of a problem. She and her people could gather stuff from the most dangerous of places if they work together. In fact, she had recently finally gotten the radars on every ship repaired. They were still learning how to use the things but it was already changing their lives. Indeed, materials were the lesser problem.

No, the real problem was that if someone told her to build a ship instead of just repairing one, she'd likely freeze up.

That was changing, bit by bit, but it caused another issue. This one was... maybe sillier, more personal. She wasn't sure. But she felt... it was changing her. She did not speak of it but... she was aware that it wasn't the others who were particularly immature or unfocused. She is the one who truly is increasingly serious all the time. She didn't really raise a fuss over it, especially since it was really silly but... she had noticed she no longer took long swims near her favorite landing spot during safe days. She no longer spent entire afternoons building a net so that she may then slap a ball over it with her friends using her stem from morning to sunset. She was increasingly efficient in her daily schedules, which meant greater safety and happiness for her people but she begun to realize it came at the price of her own carefree innocense.

Now that she thinks about it, she really want to play. To goof off too. But the days on this planet feel so short! She... just wish she had more time.

Speaking of time, it occured to her she'd been wasting it in front of her console. She wasn't even really reading the report she had loaded. It was unimportant trite anyway ; she knew what the thing said before she even started to read.

Then a thought occured to her about it all. She is wasting time right now while craving having more time to do the things she love. Why not stop wasting it and take the time she needs to do those things?

And so, she decided to do so.

She closed the file she was currently working with and instead types a few keys on the interface. She blinked a few times as she saw... blinky dots? Oh! She accessed the radar array by mistake! How silly of her! She pushed a few more keys and then, there was a weird noise and the communication array came online. Good! Now all she have to do it wait for Point to anwser.

... anytime now!

Aqua's eyes narrowed. This is taking a while. Well, he's probably busy with something, not at his ship, or talking to Floppy. Guess she'll just get everyone to visit Point and the reds tomorrow as a surprise. Surprise visits can be fun too!

* * *

><p>"... and then he yelled, really loudly, 'I'm on top of the whoooooole world!'. Then he noticed that bush, let out that really high-pitched scream and ran off the ledge falling head-first into a mushroom! When we asked him why he had done that after we pulled him out, he said he had thought the bush was a fiery blowhog."<p>

Both flowerians chuckled. It was nice to know that Floppy and the yellows in general were doing great. Frankly, there had been a rather low number of casualties recently, especially given their latest adventures to that weird place where predators sleep during the night. It was... quite refreshing, actually.

It was then that the access door to the main deck opened, someone waltzing into the room without a care. For a moment, Point thought it might be Dandelion but the way Floppy's expression changed on the monitor, he found himself doubting it was. What could be causing him to look like this?

He glanced behind him and he instantly figured out why.

"You want something?" he asked.

The taller red joined his hands behind his head, trying to look as if he didn't really care about his current location. "What? Do I have to get permission to go wherever I want?"

"What do you want?" Why has Floppy's voice suddenly turned so cold?

"I was just wondering how my fellow flowerians were doing. I mean... it isn't a crime to ask, isn't it?"

"Stop."

Both flowerians blinked in confusion at Floppy's response though for vastly different reasons. Floppy seemed rather annoyed for some reason.

"Stop what?" said the taller red, after a short moment of silence.

"That." came the yellow elder's response.

"I have no idea what you-"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. I really, really don't care so either stop it or get out. I'm talking to my friend."

"I had heard that the great Floppy was a relaxed individual. Well, it appears I was mistak-" Floppy interrupted Ageratum before he could finish his snide comment.

"I'm not a great anything and I do like to take it cool. Jerks annoy me, that's all."

"All I want is to know how the yellows are doing. Is that so much of a crime?"

This was not the way he had wanted things to go. Definitely not. The speed at which this conversation had soured was just astonishing and frankly, a bit incomprehensible. "Look, can you leave us alone for a moment? I think I need to talk to Floppy..."

The taller red flowerian paused, blinking a few times before moving his stem off from in front of his eyes.

"Fine. It's just that I thought that the oldest yellow to live, Floppy himself, would be cooler than this. I guess I shouldn't have had such high expectations." And with that said, Ageratum left as suddenly as he had barged in. Which was not very suddenly at all actually, much to the yellow flowerian's annoyance. But leave he eventually did, leaving the two elders alone once more.

The moment Ageratum left, Point turned to the screen, feeling a bit embarassed about the entire issue. "Look, I'm sorry about this. I'm sure he doesn't mean it..."

"You're a pushover, Point. Way too kind for your own good at times." The words sounded like it should be one of Floppy's usual jokes but his tone was strangely and atypically serious. "You should learn to recognize a challenge to your authority and title when you see one."

That... was not how Floppy usually acted. Sure, he had seen him serious before but never like this. Even in battle, Floppy had a kind of a cool, relaxed, collected air to him, like he had everything under control while simultaneously not trying to pretend to control anything, if that made sense. But this kind of firm tone? This was new. Given they were both survivors from the first war, he had thought he largely knew everything about his friend's temper and attitude...

But then, noticing his red friend's confusion and silence, the yellow flowerian calmed down and sighed, his expression rebecoming recognizable. What had that been all about?

"Look, Point. I've been leading the yellows ever since the first war. I know a challenge when I see one and it's obvious he wants that chair you're sitting on."

Point blinked a few times, glancing at his seat. Floppy then proceeded to facepalm hard and loudly enough for the sound to be transmitted through the communication array. "The title, Point, not the actual chair!"

Feeling really stupid, the red flowerian scratched the back of his head as he turned back to his old friend. "So... you say he wants my title?" And then, at long last, what Floppy was talking about registered. "Wait... you don't mean he's... he wants to lead my strain? I mean, he's always been a bit mean and I admit he's definitely taking his sweet time to get rid of his bad habits but-"

"He waltzed in just about now. Tried to do your job for you. Tried to make you look bad in front of me, the leader of another flowerian strain. If this is not a challenge to your authority, I'm going to kiss a shearwig."

Noticing the unease of his old friend and his confusion at his sudden seriousness, the yellow flowerian guessed he owed him an explanation. "Look... I'm an old hand at this. With Crimson gone and Olimar off our world, I'm the oldest flowerian leader alive. I like to act cool, for my strain to act cool too. Life's too short, too brutal to live it stressed. I mean... Olimar gave us the gift of life. What good is it if we squander it, right? But well... not everyone agreed with the way I bossed, or rather didn't boss around my strain. I had my fair share of two-bits tinpot wannabes who thought they'd just take over and then order around my friends. Aqua has likewise had many flowerians, both blues and whites, who tried to discredit her and take over. And though you may not really have been aware of it, not everyone was happy with Crimson's reign either."

That last one definitely got Point blinking. Though the explanation did anwser some questions, that last statement was nigh-incomprehensible to him. "Wait... are you saying that there were some people who not only didn't like Crimson but outright tried to stop him from leading us? The same Crimson who was my best friend, who led at Olimar's side, who defeated Emperor Bulblax, organized and allowed us to thrive after Olimar's initial departure, and then again led us against the dweevils before giving his life for us all? That same Crimson?"

Floppy nodded. "Yep. Rare, of course. Being a jerk means isolation. Isolaton means death on this planet. But from time to time, it happen."

Point just sat there, staring at the interface of the console, slowly processing what Floppy had said. He just couldn't picture it. To him, the flowerians had always been an united group. Everyone sang together, played together, fought together, lived or died together. The reaction of anyone who stumbled down was to help them up, never to let them down. And when Crimson, Floppy, or Aqua had given an order, everyone always followed gladly.

"Remember Amanite?"

And suddenly, his mind broke that perfect image of the colonists' unity. He remembered him. Everyone did.

"One of the quieter moments of the second war. All of our strains working together under Olimar to salvage a huge construction vehicle of sorts, probably by whatever sapient species predecessed our own. One of the brightest minds we had, rivaling Aqua easily. You remember him, right?"

Point nodded. An unpleasant memory to be sure. "He grumbled the entire time that moving large metal bits to Olimar's ship was unfit for someone of his intellect, that this was a waste of his time. After one of your friends dropped a discarded piece of unuseable metal on his head by mistake, he went beserk."

"Had to restrain him. Solitary confinement for days. Thorough talking to from me, Crimson, and Aqua." finished the yellow flowerian. "Bad seeds crop up from time to time, Point. Even among flowerians. Especially among flowerians."

He had never really given it that much thought before. But... ever since Crimson had died, he had been called to resolve a lot of conflicts among his friends. He often did not know what to do and frankly, Dandelion did most of the work but now that he thought about it... not everyone agreed on everything all the time. In fact... it made him think of his fight with Aqua over their grief and of how he had said things he now regretted at Floppy when he was convinced they were going to die in that worm monster's throat. Sure, they had made no big deal of it and it had been said due to panic and despair but... now that he thought about it, Floppy was right...

"Some people just won't be your friend no matter how nice you are to them."

The red flowerian was deep in thought. And Floppy knew his friend well enough, knew about his insecurity well enough to guess what he was thinking. "Don't even think about it. You're a better leader than you think."

"Am I? All I do is running after butterflies, sing songs, help lift up stuff, and play with my friends..."

"You also round everyone up on time when sunset comes, get your friends to know what to move back to the ship and how to get it back on time, and know when to sic Dandelion on bad guys and when to just get everyone to run."

The red flowerian stared at the screen, unsure what to say. He fiddled with his thumbs, his stem drooping, the flower obscuring his vision. "But I... I..."

"You're not Olimar, Point. And you're not Crimson either. You're just you. You're not the leader they are. You're the leader you are. Just as Crimson was not Olimar, you're not Crimson. Just like I'm not you. And like Aqua is not me. You want to know if you're doing a decent job, Point?"

He nodded. Yes, yes he wanted to know more than anything else. It was only the question that tormented him the most at night.

"Are your friends happy?"

"Yes."

"Is your ship's well stocked with materials?"

"Yes."

"Is your strain's birth rate greater than its casualty rate?"

"Yes."

"Then you're a decent leader."

Point blinked a few times. Wait... what? That's it? "It can't be that simple."

"It's that simple, Point. Are we alive and happy? Do we got all we need to stay alive and happy? If yes, you're good to go. That's all there is to it. Keeping your friends alive and happy and making sure they stay that way."

He was... well, not sure what to say. Just... not sure. He guessed that made him a good leader if those were the only factors but he couldn't help but have doubts. He's not like Olimar. He wouldn't have been able to lead his strain against Emperor Bulblax and Titan Dweevil. He's... he's just...

"You're a good leader. As for Ageratum? Nope. Double nope. No way."

This brought the red flowerian out of his gloomy mood and inspired him with a more innocent curiosity. "How would you know if he'd be a good leader or not?"

"Because he doesn't care. It's obvious he only care about himself or maybe his close friends, if they're friends and not gullible cronies he seduced with his big awesome cool guy routine. Put him in charge and I guarantee you'll all be dead in a week."

This... was an insanely harsh opinion. It made Point incomfortable again to see the usually really relaxed and humorous yellow flowerian being so harsh and serious. He understood the logic why he'd be serious but to say that Ageratum just wouldn't care?

"I... I don't know. I don't know if I'd see him as being that much of a jerk. He's still a flowerian, like us. He... he live with us, sing with us, play with us."

A long sigh from his old friend, followed by a shrug. "Look, I know this is really a drag and frankly, I hate this business. But he's been acting like a jerk basically the moment he begun thinking for himself and he's only getting worse. I hope I'm wrong but at the very least, he needs to change his attitude and you're not going to do that by letting him do whatever he wants and making you look bad all the time. You'll have to react, eventually."

One final moment of awkward silence and then, the yellow flowerian relaxed, his serious expression vanishing as suddenly as it had appeared. "Now that this is out of the way... did I tell you about Aqua's latest attempt at replicating the ultra-spicy spray?"

And indeed, here he was, at the edge of his seat, as if the conversation's little derailment had never occured. But then, as flowerians, their lives were naturally filled with tragedy and horror. One either moved on or didn't. And they both had made their decision a long time ago. And so Floppy shared with his friend the humorous results of Aqua's latest attempt at replicating the ultra-bitter spray that Olimar had created and used during the second war.

* * *

><p>The harvest was the one thing that never changed. Regardless of who led the flowerian colonists, may it be Olimar or one of their own kind, the search and harvest for the pellet posies and their precious fruits was a never-ending task. Each of the flowers' strangely cylindrical fruits were filled with an astonishing amount of nutrients which could then be absorbed by the flowerian ships' bio-processing facilities, turning them into raw materials that the cloning facilities could then transform into seeds. Then, the leftovers were turned into food for the colonists as a whole.<p>

Indeed, the cultivation of those flowers was the lifeblood of the flowerian colony, serving to both reinforce their fragile population and prevent them from starving. Though flowerians could in theory survive from sunshine and water alone, the amount of energy they consumed by living their everday lives was more than photosynthesis could cope with. Indeed, to survive as plants, they'd need to burry themselves into the earth and forfeit a wandering, thinking existence.

Except for the most extreme of circumstances, this was unnacceptable. Thankfully, flowerians were omnivores and their ships' bio-processing plants were extremely efficient. A startingly vast variety of life-forms could indeed be processed into food.

However... most of the species that were anywhere near efficient to consume were dangerous. This made pellet posies unique ; since they were harmless plants and thus, did not require flowerians to risk losing life and limb, to find and take care of great fields of them was vital.

Most popular landing sites tended to be in the middle of such fields, actually.

Thus, since the red and purple strains' food reserves were starting to run low and the time had come for a new population boost, it wasn't a surprise that Point found himself leading his friends among the field of giant plants.

"One two one two breathe! One two one two breathe!" The calls were constant as reds and purples moved together, heaving the massive cylindrical fruits.

With stems and fists, flowerians pounded upon the impressively tall plants, shaking them as to force them to drop their prizes. Those who had learnt how to jump or simply knew from the old days the most effective manner of harvesting the fruits simply lept into the air and then landed into the plants from above, pounding into them to detach their fruit in a single motion.

All over the place, single colonists carried smaller fruits while they coordinated and worked together to carry the larger ones. Of course, Point was overseeing the process. It was vital to make sure everyone moved as one. Failure to work together would result in individuals struggling all day to move pellets they would never be able to even budge. Besides, the better everyone worked together, the faster it went.

From the plants to the ship, pellets were placed under the ship, its tractor beam activating and sucking in the various fruits in for processing. Once processed, new seeds were ejected from the top of the vessel, slowly falling to the ground before slamming into it softly, burrying themselves. New lives were being produced, stems ending with leaves emerging from the ground, looking like strange red-coloring plants but truly being newborns. Soon enough, way before noon, the flowerians managed to get a steady flow of pellets going, the ship's stasis system starting to house the seeds that would not be ejected to bloom the natural way.

All in all, today was very productive, actually!... on a superficial basis.

Point was used to participate and anyway, it was flowerian tradition for leaders to involve themselves directly. Sure, Olimar did not involve himself in carrying back objects back when he led the colonists but that was because he was usually multi-tasking. When he wasn't, he would use his fists to help with the harvest, knocking loose fruit or whistling and motionning around to make sure everyone was working efficiently.

This was not Point's style. He always liked it in a subordinate position and though he was gradually growing used to his position as a leader, the truth remained that he prefered to help carry things. As such, once everyone was hitting a nice groove, he found a group struggling to carry a particularly heavy fruit and ran to their side. His hands reached down and with one mighty effort, he helped them lift up the heavy object.

In a way, it might explain why Salsa and all the others were so close to him. Unlike Olimar, Point always participated in everything the strain did. Games, battles, work, songs, Point was always directly involved. For all that he was skitterish and a bit of an airhead, they knew that he would never ask something unreasonable out of them for the simple reason that he always particpated, always worked alongside them to fulfill whatever he ordered.

Unfortunately, this did mean that Point became too distracted to notice the dissonance and chaos that rose within his group. It begun when one small group of reds begun to circle around the area instead of heading straight for the ship. Then, a few reds hesitated. Then more hesitated. Then one outright abandonned his task. Then another. And then another. Soon, a sizeable amount of flowerians were not working.

By now, Dandelion had noticed this but Point, being too busy carrying his load, remained oblivious.

Well, he remained oblivious until he glanced to the side, noticing that Ageratum was right next to him, staring. "Oh, Ageratum? Could you please grab it from the right and help us? This thing's mighty heavy!"

He mentally repeated the mantra, focusing on his breathing as he put one foot after the next forward, continuing his march. It was crazy how far away the ship felt despite the fact that he rationally knew it to be close by. Just a little more effort!

... and why is the pellet not feeling any lighter? It's like Ageratum did not lend a hand!

Oh.

It's because he did not actually lend a hand. He's still staring. For some reason. "Hmmm... a little help here, please?"

Why is he looking at him like this, with his arms crossed? In fact, why are his friends surrounding him, just watching?

In fact...

Now that he really pay attention, how come there's so many of his friends just surrounding him, not lifting a finger? They need all those pellets! Their food stock is low!

"Look at him, guys! Got a flower, struggle with a small pellet like this!"

Why did he just say that? That's kind of mean, especially since he asked nicely for help!

He felt his hands on his back, just under the shoulders. Is he... tickling him? Oh no! Oh no no no! Not now! "What's the matter? Ticklish?"

Why are his friends starting to laugh? This is serious! "P-please stop! I-I'm trying to..." His body was twitching, his stem flaying about, causing him to lose his balance. His legs were refusing to move anymore. The others were grunting with sheer effort and to his growing horror, he felt the pellet slowly start to slip from his fingers.

"I thought you were a grown-up! You're gonna laugh like a newly plucked? I think that flower at the end of your stem might be a product of a nectar drinking frenzy!"

Tears welled up in his eyes as he struggled to keep carrying the pellet. He could no longer afford to glance at Ageratum or anywhere else but at his hands as his fingers felt like they were about to be torn off from the sheer effort. His entire body shuddered, his stem whipping back and forth by now from the sensation. Mustn't drop the fruit! Mustn't drop it! Mustn't drop-

"N-n-NO! HA-HA-NO!" His body shuddered involuntarily, the pellet bouncing in his grip... and unfortunately slipping past his fingers.

**_BAAAM!_**

Whatever thoughts he had, whatever panic or confusion he might have felt before was just gone. All of it was replaced with PAIN. Mind-searing, paralyzing, all-consuming PAIN as the heavy pellet crushed his feet. He had faceplanted and bruised his feet enough times to know the difference between him simply feeling like they had been crushed and them having been genuinely turned to a red smear on the ground. This case was the later, his toes having exploded under the sheer pressure of the pellet's weight slamming into his feet and resting entirely upon them.

He let out a scream of pure, undiluted agony. He reeled back, his vision becoming a blurry haze as tears blinded him, dizziness from the combined pain and bleeding preventing him from thinking. The laughter of Ageratum and his friends became distorted, distant voices, circling him as his mind swam.

Dandelion's eyes were as large as saucers. He thrown to the side to pellet he had been carrying on his right shoulder, rushing to his friend's side as he collapsed, screaming and sobbing as he twitched on the ground, red liquid pooling at his feet. He did not need extended knowledge of biology or medecine to know that Point's injury was no joke. Salsa and Point's other friends had dropped the pellet, staring at their friend with a look of sheer shock and horror on their faces.

"Quick! Grab him and carry him back to the ship!" he called to Salsa. His stem straightened and he nodded quickly, moving with the others to grab the red elder. The purple elder turned to face Ageratum...

... who was on the ground, cackling incontrollably, his friends howling with laughter.

"Did-did you see? He just-he just-! Just dropped it! Hahaha-HA!"

"What an idiot! Hahaha!"

"He should be named Clumsy!"

"Or stupid-face! Hahahaa-HAHA!"

If Dandelion's face wasn't already purple, it would have turned that color as his fists shook with rage. Point, his friend, had just been injured and they were laughing?

"What were you thinking?!" his tone came off as a barely suppressed whisper, the soldier strain flowerian feeling rage seep through his self-control.

"Geez! He just dropped his load from tiny little tickles. Like a newly plucked sprout!"

He knew he shouldn't just punch that bud-sporting jerk in the face. Apart from the fact that it was very rude, the fact was that as a soldier strain flowerian, his exceptional strength meant that said punch, especially fueled by anger, would send Ageratum flying a considerable distance, likely slamming him into the nearest cliff as well as breaking every bone in his body. After all, maybe he's just being incredibly immature and he need to be made to understand that making others drop heavy objects could have disastrous consequences.

Sure, given they're so close to the ship it will only take a short while to carry Point back to it and given the kind of injuries they had treated in the past, this was nothing. Still, what if that had happened deep in the forest, far from the ship? Or worse yet, in the middle of combat, where ceasing movement meant becoming food?

"Do you realize how deeply stupid what you have done is?!"

"Hey, why are you getting so worked up old guy?"

Okay, scratch that theory. He's not merely immature, he's outright a jerk. His stem twitched dangerously, the flower inhaling air alongside with his nose as he breathed in very, very deep, clearing away the twitches in his hands. If this had been during the second war, he would have grabbed that idiot and told him in no uncertain terms that he had just volunteered as bait to ambush volatile dweevils.

But this was not the second war and beside, he had greater self-control than this.

"We need to talk. Now."

For a moment, the taller red's insufferable smirk vanished and his friends fidgeted incomfortably. Good. But then, he saw that smirk return for some reason. Less good.

"Some leader that loser is! Always needing to be bailed out by someone else! Oh! That bulborb looks scary! Call Dandelion! That fruit sure look heavy! Call Dandelion! Oh no, I forgot some strays! Call Dandelion! Oh no, I lost a ball game! Call Dandelion! Oh no, I can't make two steps before faceplanting! Call Dandelion!"

He approached the arrogant jerk. He recognized him. Post-second war newborn, old enough for his leaf to have transitionned the natural way into a bud but not quite having reached full adulthood yet.

As a purple, he was quite taller and bulkier than most flowerians. This was a given since purple flowerians were a combat strain, deliberately designed to be formidable physically. Most flowerians were at a disadvantage fighting the oversized predators of this world but not Dandelion. His massive muscles allowed him to easily grab and snap in half the smaller predators while his impressive bulk allowed him to give the larger predators a serious concussion that left them dazed as he stomped on their heads. Only the mightiest of beasts could give him trouble.

Most flowerians were aware of this. Even those that weren't noticed that they were looking up to him, the very tip of their stems merely up to his eyes, his frame more than double their width. This was handy, as it allowed him to intimidate colonists with bad attitudes.

Unfortunately, it seemed Ageratum had been gifted by nature or was simply based off an impressive red flowerian specimen. Simply put, he was not towering over the brat like he would over most other colonists. He had a feeling it played a part in the brat not losing his attitude the moment he closed the distance so that he would see, very clearly, how angry he was at the moment.

Thankfully, it seemed his friends were smarter than him.

"Err... Ageratum? This IS Dandelion..."

A serie of nods all around the brat. For a moment, it seemed like he'd falter... but then, it seemed that he was clearly overstimating the idiot's intelligence as he did not begin to apologize.

"Ha. You're Dandelion?" Well, at least, he did have the decency to sound a bit nervous. Instantly, the purple elder figured he shouldn't have tempted fate as the unintelligent red regained his confidence and attitude. "Why would you even listen to that loser? All he does is run around, faceplant, and screech like a newly plucked sprout! You're practically being his nanny, doing absolutely everything! Some leader he is!"

"Point has done more in a single month of his life for our kind that you have done in your entire existence. Don't push your luck, kid."

Despite how clear he was that he was sick of Ageratum's grating nonsense, the bud-sporting flowerian proved himself to be hopelessly thick as he did not drop the attitude.

"Oh we suuuure saw how valuable Point is to our kind! Who would faceplant and drop his stuck when tickled like a teeny wibble newly plucked sprout like him? Seriously, old guy. Is that really the one who's supposed to lead us? I think we're in need of new management!"

"YEAH!" went all of his friends... and quite a few others that hadn't been laughing with him previously. Is this for real? Are those idiots for real?

"ENOUGH!" everyone went silent as he punctuated his yell by slamming his right foot into the ground as hard as he could. "We are going back to the ship! Now!"

"But we-" some reds begun, pointing to many who were still carrying pellets.

"I said NOW! Drop them, if need be!"

* * *

><p>Dandelion glared daggers at the bud-sporting jerk as they both sat in the same room. Soon, Point would be out of the medical bay with brand new feet to replace those he lost due to his... accident. Still, the purple elder was, as one might say, slightly upset at how things had turned out.<p>

The taller red just half-laid on a nearby seat, as if he didn't care. Considering the sheer lack of empathy he had demonstrated earlier, the purple elder suspected that he actually truly might not care. But still, it was his duty to protect all flowerians and he would not let his dislike of one colonist blind him.

"What you did was unnacceptable, Ageratum." he tried to stay calm. The relative silence while everyone had boarded the ship had helped. Though it was obvious everyone wondered why the call to return to the ship was sounded when the day was just starting, none had failed to anwser it.

"It's not my fault he's a newly plucked sprout wuss."

"This is exactly the attitude I don't want to see. You're being a jerk for no good reason."

"No good reason? He's a joke, a wuss, a lamer, an idiot. How come he get to be the leader anyway?"

"Ageratum, Point is the oldest flowerian alive, the last survivor of the original generation from the first war. He-"

"Yeah yeah, so what? I heard he wasn't even the leader back then! Something about a Oli-something and a Crims-other having led us at that time. All he does is run away and scream like a wuss! I heard that's all he's ever done! Why should we listen to that guy, seriously?"

He was about to say something about that when the medical bay's doors slid open, the smaller red flowerian walking out. Though he tried to smile, it was obvious he was embarassed over something. Probably dropping that big pellet, which hadn't been his fault.

"Err... here I am. Sorry about worrying you all..."

Dandelion quickly felt his mood improve and decided to just focus on the issue at hand. He nodded at his old friend. He was about to tell him that he was glad to see him back on his feet so quickly, no pun intended, when he found himself interrupted. Really, this is growing repetitive and grating by now. The idea of just punching the jerk was growing more and more appealing by the minute.

"Yeah, sure. Whatever you say."

Point tried to say something only for Ageratum to continue. "Sure sure, if you say so."

He then paused and tried to talk again. "Got it, alright then!" the younger red interrupted him again.

The red elder looked down at his feet sadly, growing silent, his stem drooping while Ageratum seemed proud of himself. Dandelion couldn't believe what he was seeing and hearing. What was that idiot playing at?

When he was about to finally do something about the situation, Salsa suddenly and unexpectedly barged into the room. "Point! The main deck's console got blinky lights and a weird repetitive sound! I think someone is trying to call us!"

Point's eyes lit up and whatever gloominess had been there previous just vanished as he ran out of the room, eager to find which of his friends was calling him this time. Ageratum snorted as he watched the red elder run off before getting up and starting to walk away himself.

"Hey! We are not done talking! You stay there!" called the purple elder.

The tall red didn't even pay attention to him, waltzing out of the room as though he had not heard him.

Ageratum walked through the ship's halls, quickly reaching the main deck. Noticing the wuss's other friend, Salsa, he slammed him into the wall by smashing his shoulder into his sides as he walked past. It was, of course, completely by accident and anyone who witnessed the act will say it is so. As he reached the main deck, the wuss was in front of some kind of weird square thing that shown the image of the upper half of a blue flowerian, probably the leader of the blue and white strains. He didn't know what they were talking about and anyway, since it was the wuss, it was something unimportant so he spoke up.

"Hey! You're kind of really smart, right? In charge of all of our kind's machines and what not?"

There was a moment of silence as the wuss blinked a few times, staring at him while the blue one kind of stared at him in a weird way.

"Who is that, Point?"

"I'm Ageratum!" he interrupted, not letting the wuss talk. "What do you want?"

"I was talking to Point. You are interrupting."

"Hey, whatever he can hear, I can hear, right? So what is it?"

"I was takling to Point in particular. Not you." Why is that blue guy insisting? Geez!

"What, you don't want to be my friend? You're going to exclude me from your little conversation? That's mean!"

"With that kind of attitude? Yes." Hmph, for someone who is supposed to be kind of really smart, she sure doesn't say smart stuff!

"Well, I had thought someone as smart as you wouldn't be unfriendly and mean but well, I guess I now know you'd rather be alone and not hang out with anyone else!"

He waited for the blue guy to apologize and beg him to hang out with him but instead, the blue weirdo just stared at him. Ha ha! What a stupid look!

"What are you chuckling for?"

"You had a face that would fit the wuss perfectly!"

Ha ha! Another stupid face! "Did you just seriously called Point a wuss?"

"Well, he's one! Isn't it? Can't make two steps without falling on his face, running all over the place screaming in that hilarous high-pitched tone!"

"Leave. Immediately."

Oh, so she's going to defend him? Why would someone who is supposed to be smart do so? Maybe she's not that smart after all! "What, you really think he's cool?"

"I said, immediately."

"Fine fine, I got it. You'd rather hang out with uncool people. I guess everyone will be disappointed to hear that."

"I. said. immediately." Geez! No need to snarl it at him!

He left quickly after shrugging. The wuss and that dumb blue idiot started talking again but it wasn't important. They're just idiots, after all.

Meanwhile, Point found himself relieved as Ageratum finally left, if only because he stopped interrupting the rather important news that Aqua and the blues would be there in a matter of minutes.

"Sorry about that. Ageratum has an attitude problem, one that seems to be getting worse all the time. Floppy said I should do something about it... but I... really don't know."

"Point."

The red elder blinked as he heard the seriousness in Aqua's voice. He had expected her good mood to return and yet, here she was, still serious. What was that all about?

"Have you looked at the B section of the computer's dictionary?" she asked.

"Err... not really. I admit I've not looked at the records too much."

"Look it up. More exactly, search for a word, the word bully more exactly. I think it is relevent to your situation."

He blinked again, slightly confused. However, soon enough, Aqua recovered her smile and the tension all but vanished as suddenly as it had appeared. Sure, he'd do that later. But for now... their strains were going to be reunited for the day. That was nice! On one hand, he found himself reluctant to end the transmission. On another hand, he knew that he would see her soon, very soon. She can only wonder what surprises she'll bring and what games they'll all play together!

He hope it will help him forget a bit about Ageratum and his attitude...

* * *

><p>Point got out of the ship first. This was tradition ; the leader always got out first, earlier than everyone else, to check if everything was safe. And then, the signal was given that it was okay to come out. It was how it had worked under Olimar, it was how it had worked under Crimson, it was how it worked under himself too. The others worked the same way, actually. It was just more convenient than everyone trying to barge out of the access doors in a chaotic manner.<p>

In a way, it was kind of a relief not to find Ageratum outside, trying to call out everybody. The red flowerian had never really cared about being a leader but now that he thought about Floppy's words and the way the taller acted toward him lately made him realize that as little as he did, it was still reassuring to him to do it.

So here he was, sliding down the access ramp before placing himself under the ship as he always had at the start of every day since he became the leader.

The reaction was swift. Given everyone had been kind of upset at being called off early to the ship, massive streams of flowerians, reds and purples, slid down the landing gear legs of the starship, quickly joined the red elder under the vessel.

It was just in time too for them to witness the landing process of the blue ship. Newly plucked and even older colonists went "Ooooh!" and "Aaaah!" as they saw the large vessel slowly approach the ground using its flower-like proppeler to adjust its speed and then, deploy its massive landing gear. A few minutes later, as the engine of the blue-colored ship quieted down, a familiar flower-bearing blue figure slid down the north access ramp. Aqua confidently walked under her own ship and gave the call. Enthusiatic chirps anwsered her as her strain as well as the whites that also lived with her slid down the access ramps to join her.

Soon enough, the clearing was filled with flowerians. If one looked from above, the clearing would seem like it had turned into a massive garden, the ground covered in slowly swaying leaves, buds, and flowers. It was an awe-inspiring sight and Point could not help but think that all that missed was Floppy and the yellows and all of the PNF-404 colonists would be reunited, like when they were under Olimar.

While the area filled with the voices of flowerians as everyone started to talk about their day and what had happened recently, Aqua marched confidently through the thick crowd and easily found her counterpart. She nodded at him, her stem swinging low and slowly. "It is nice to see you Point."

"Yeah! I'm so happy that you're here!"

For a moment, Aqua tried to stay all serious but frankly, given what she was here for? Her hands trembled slightly before she joined them, her mouth forming a huge smile. "Oooooh this is going to be awesome!" And the dam broke and she begun to bounce around. "I got something really cool to show you, guys! You'll love it! I worked so hard on it!"

"Oh? That cool? Yaaaaay!" cheered the red elder.

Everyone beamed with excitement and happiness. For a moment, the unpleasant events that had taken place earlier were forgotten. What could be the surprise that the blues had brought? Anticipation was high.

And Aqua did not disappoint.

The air filled with the characteristic noise that a flowerian ship's propeller made when active. Yet both the red and blue ships were landed. Had the yellows chosen to join in unexpectedly? But then, as Point and Dandelion turned their eyes to the skies, they noticed the obvious.

The ship that was approaching had its hull colored grey.

"Whoa..."

"How?" the two elders could only whispers while everyone stood in awe.

"I finally figured how to repair and refuel the ships we found. Yep! A brand new ship! I repaired a ship!"

As the cheers reached their apex, a small number of whites slid down the ramps of the newly repaired grey ship. Point was especially happy! More ships meant more living space, it meant going to more places quicker and if Aqua could repair a ship, what did it meant about what she could do? In fact...

"You know, this is amazing! I wonder what you'll do next..."

"Create new ships from scratch?"

He stared at Aqua, expecting her to tell him she was just kidding. He kept staring. Any moment now...

"I'm serious."

He blinked once. Then a second time. "Wha-... rea... really?"

"Yep!" She then became a bit nervous for a moment, her smile becoming a bit less confident, the blue scratching her head. "To say the truth, I don't think I can create the hulls entirely from scratch but... yeah! I'm gonna go for it!"

That was... surreal. Basically surreal! He had thought he would never live to see this day. That if any flowerian would figure out this much of their lost technology, it would be a future generation that would do it. For Aqua to be able to do it... he could barely believe it!

Of course, this being PNF-404, Point and Aqua should have known that their happiness would be short-lived. Usually, this would mean a bulborb barging in or some other monstrous creature but the red flowerian should have known by now that his biggest source of stress was a different one lately. Namely, Ageratum recovered from his awe rather quickly as unlike the elder, he did not really understand the significance of the new ship's arrival. So once the wow factor of it landing wore off, he quickly became bored. Boredom resulted in him thinking. Thinking resulted in him acting. Acting resulted in him spoiling the good mood.

"Hey! Aqua!"

The blue colonist turned to face a rather tall red strain colonist with a bud at the end of his stem. Judging by his expression and general appearance, she recognized him from that little transmission a while ago. Oh, it was that particular individual. She straightened herself, her innocent happiness giving away to a serious, cold glare, her radiant smile giving away to a small, humorless frown.

She learnt that he was not observant or that if he was, he only cared as far as it concerned his interests. Despite the fact that her expression was very clear, he did not seem to aknowledge it.

"What is it?"

"Hmmm..." he seemed like he was about to laugh but was holding it. Badly. "You're shorter than I had thought..."

"Flowerians are not an especially tall species, especially not in comparison wi-"

"Yeah yeah right."

She instantly begun to dislike him.

"So we were going to get more fruit today. You and your friends will be helping, right?"

Her dislike became slightly deeper. If anything, he was obnoxious. "In case you did not notice, we are busy at the moment."

He blinked a few times in a way that shown a rather startling absence of intelligence. Rationally, she realized it was probably a faked expression but he seemed so bent on being annoying that she actually decided it was genuine. "With who, exactly?"

"Errr... we were... talking... before you-" Point spoke up meekly, really not wanting to deal with this at the moment. Unfortunately, that tall red flowerian seemed determined to press the issue and as such, did exactly that.

"Stop talking."

"But I-"

"Stop."

"Why should he stop?" She had a feeling she knew the anwser. There was just something so utterly obnoxious about him that she just knew it. In a way, it reminded her of those really annoying scientist strains colonists that had tried to claim they were better than her at what she did just because they were scientist strain folowerians. Nevermind that they were not born with innate knowledge and in fact, were largely reds, blues, and yellows who had been thrown in genetic resequencers.

But yeah, this particular red's attitude was starting to sound really familiar in a bad way.

"I don't care what he says."

"He do happen to organize and coordinate the reds rather effectively."

Despite his smirk, she saw that her use of big words had just confused him. She facepalmed and groaned, her stem half-hiding her face as she remembered that very few colonists actually looked over the computers' databases when they had free time during the night. In fact, most flowerians slept at night. Well, she do sleep at night just... not as much.

"What I meant is that he's your leader."

"Well, about that..." Strange, she suddenly prefered it better when he was blinking at her in total silence out of incomprehension. "I don't care."

She thought at first that he was just a stubborn idiot but then, he crossed his arms and tried to make himself look really impressive. "I mean, all he do is just run all around and fall on his face!"

"Yeah! And every time we see something scary, he always scream like a newly plucked kiddy and run in circles really fast!"

"He's a crybaby! Always whining when the sun is nearly down!"

"And he's scared of the dark!"

"And of small buggy things!"

"And he look funny!"

"I mean, why should we listen to him? He's a scaredy scared idiot!"

"He's not cool! Ageratum, now he's cool!"

"Yeah, did you see how cool he looked that other day! So awesome!"

And at this moment, Aqua recognized Ageratum for what he was. Namely, one of those insufferable know-it-alls who think they're better than everyone else. Sure, she did recognize that Point was not exactly a stellar leader but then, she also thought that Floppy was kind of incompetent and despite this, the results of his reign spoke for themselves, the yellows having the largest and most successful colony so far.

Crimson was not Olimar. She is not Crimson. Floppy is not her. Point is not Floppy. Different leaders, different styles. And frankly? Ageratum appears kind of childish and stupid to her. Sure, she's childish herself, a result of being so young technically but at least, she's not like that arrogant moron.

Cool? Ageratum is cool? No, he's not cool, he look silly. Crimson, now he was cool! That idiot is a wannabe and little more.

"Err... shouldn't we... you know... listen to what Aqua has to say?" Point spoke up. It was obvious that he felt intimidated by this display. Aqua tried to stay as calm as she could.

"I say we go gather that fruit and then play ball in the orange clearing!"

Cheers came from the crowd of reds. Both Point, Aqua, Dandelion, the blues, and most of the purples flinched simultaneously. The orange clearing was a popular feeding ground for bulborbs and many of those who woke up early or simply could not sleep. While it seemed like the perfect spot for a game, it was actually a death trap of a place. There was a reason sheargrubs nested in vast numbers there ; the sheer slaughters that resulted from colonists trying to hang around the place covered the clearing in enough blood for them to feed for days on end.

Even with the bulborb population down, it just wasn't a good idea to hang in that particular spot.

"B-B-BUT THIS PLACE IS-IS...!" Point panicked, noticing that many of his friends were among those who had cheered for Ageratum.

Noticing that the various reds and even a few purples were starting to gather all behind the bud-sporting tall colonist, Aqua decided to clear her throat, push her flower off from in front of her face, and make her opinion known.

"You should all listen to him." she said, not quite yelling but making sure everyone would hear her despite the racket.

"Pfft! Why should we do that?" She did not know who said that and frankly, she did not care.

"He is your leader. He knows-"

She was rarely interrupted. Or rather, rarely interrupted by any flowerian who had lived long enough to grow a bud or to understand that usually what she said was kind of important. So she guessed that whoever said that was probably plucked recently. Probably someone impressed by the tall red's little act. Newly plucked flowerians are very impressionable after all.

"I don't care!" This time, it wasn't Ageratum speaking. It was a chorus from many of the reds.

She had just about enough of this nonsense. So she did yell this time. "ENOUGH! I don't care if you find Point to be uncool or whatever you're talking about! He's been leading your strain for a while and he knows what to do! As long as you are part of it, you should listen to him!"

Aqua was so focused on the unruly crowd that she did not notice Point's shock and gratitude at her standing up for him. Insecure in his own position as he was, he was frankly shocked to learn that both Floppy and Aqua actually found him to be a good leader. They had always been his friends but... he had never known they'd both think he was worthy. It was almost enough to make him calm down though not quite.

"So as long as we're part of his group, we should listen to him right?" went the tall red.

"Yes. Because it's obvious he knows what he's doing but not you."

Apparently, Ageratum did not get that she tried to make her tone sound extra-cold on purpose. But then, she learnt that this was a consistent pattern when it came to him. Frankly, given his attitude, she was starting to wonder why he hadn't met a shearwig willing to cure him of it yet.

"Then we'll just start our own!" he went before turning to his friends. "We don't need him, right guys? We'll have our own strain and it will be much better than his!"

This... was one of the dumbest things she ever heard in her life. She know that objectively, she's been alive for only a short time but she heard a lot of really dim, dumb colonists and really, this is one of the dumbest ideas she heard. And she heard a lot of really, deeply stupid ideas before.

"Oh sure, great idea! And how will you survive the night without a ship?"

"Easy! With this ship!" said the bud-sporting red, pointing at the red starship.

No. Oooooh no he's not suggesting this. Point apparently got it because he kind of looked pale for a moment. "B-but that's our ship! I need it!"

"Whatever. You can take that other ship Acka brought with him here."

How can Point stand him, really? She's certain he mispelled her name and called her a male on purpose! Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder and saw that Dandelion was near her, looking calm. Then she realized how tense she was and how she had been standing there, fists clenched. He's right, she should relax.

"The red ship belongs to Point. As a new strain, you will be the one to get a new ship." said Dandelion.

"Nah! It looks cooler! So I'll take it!" went Ageratum.

"It does not work that way. You can't-"

And then the tall, arrogant colonist proceeded to test the patience of the elders one time too many. As he begun to walk back toward the red ship with the obvious intention of claiming it for himself, Dandelion's nerves finally snapped and he reached out with surprising speed.

Soldier strain flowerians, such as Dandelions, were infamously slow... when it came to running speed. The speed of their arms was on the other hand, rather the opposite. As such, the moment the red jerk walked past the purple elder, the elder's hand reached for him at speeds that really shouldn't be achieved by a flowerian and then, his fingers clenched.

Dandelion is strong, incredibly, unbelievably strong. Only the heaviest objects are a problem and he could cause a fully grown bulborb to lose its footing and fall with one good punch to the face. So when the purple elder grabbed Ageratum's stem and then squeezed with all of his strength, the amount of pressure applied was enough that many of the nerves inside actually popped. And well, if one biological fact has to be understood about flowerians, it is that their stem is extremely sensitive, being connected to their reproductive organ.

As such, Ageratum proceeded to scream at the top of his lungs in a tone that was more high-pitched than one would have ever thought possible from the usually masculine-looking and acting red.

Before the red could do anything, Dandelion quickly yanked him off his feet and spun it so that they'd be face-to-face. More exactly, with Dandelion's face pressing against Ageratum's, their eyes locked together. Ageratum was still relatively young but was old enough to have faced predators quite a few times and as such, thought that he knew what could be qualified as a scary face. Apparently, he had been mistaken as, at this very moment, Dandelion's face became the single most terrifying sight he had ever witnessed. Given this is PNF-404, this was saying something even for a young flowerian. It was enough to make him forget that his stem was hurting sufficiently to numb his entire body.

"I've had about enough of your attitude." Likewise, Ageratum discovered that the quiet, whisper-like snarl that came from the elder was more terrifying than the biggest bulborb's roar. "You will apologize to my friend right now and I'll maybe allow you to get away from this with being grounded until the day you wilt. Oh and of course, you have just volunteered for participating in my squad's drills. They involve push-ups. Thousands of them. And you will like it or I will make you like it. Got it, jerkface?"

Everyone had fallen silent, their eyes bugged out from what had happened. Sure, sometimes some fought or argued but Dandelion grabbing Ageratum hard enough to make him scream and threatening him this badly? It reminded him of his fight he had with Aqua that other day over their respective failures to cope with Crimson's death. To see Dandelion so angry, so upset to the point of hurting Ageratum... he may be a mean jerk but he was still one of them. This entire situation was just making him feel... feel...

Dandelion saw his best friend's face. He saw the way tears begun to trail down his cheeks and the fear in his eyes. And at this moment, it finally registered that he had not restrained himself when he had grabbed Ageratum. For a moment, the soldier flowerian found himself disturbed and horrified at the depth of his own hatred. He had been turned into a purple very shortly after being plucked and as such, he had lived practically his entire life protecting others, restraining his strength and only directing it at the predators of this world. The fact that he had become consumed by anger enough to unleash his strength toward a fellow colonist no matter how obnoxious...

He let go of him. For a moment, the young flowerian did not look tall at all. He was sobbing softly, clawing at his bud, the stem covered in deep red marks shaped like the purple flowerian's fingers. A mean jerk Ageratum was... yet, he was ultimately a child. As the oldest of the purples and a survivor of the second war, it should have been his responsability to be a source of safety and comfort...

"Peace." Aqua's voice ended the awkward silence. Slowly, movement returned to everyone as they turned to face her.

For a moment, she hoped that the red would understand what he had done, how he had pushed the hearts of everyone so far and set their nerves ablaze enough to almost cause something that everyone would have regretted. But as she saw him wipe his tears, his face deformed by resentment at the older flowerian, she knew he did not understand. He would not understand.

Drastic action was required. But she would not let it come to this. Another method would be used.

"The new ship is yours."

Ageratum's anger vanished as suddenly as it had appeared on his face. Despite his attempt at looking cool, he could not hide the sheer surprise and confusion he felt at this statement. Aqua did not allow him to truly think on it.

"Gale." A small white in the back of the blues' group straightened himself. "Find a suitable colonist among Ageratum's followers. Teach him."

The white hesitated for a moment and then the scientist strain flowerian sprinted into the crowd of confused reds. Aqua knows he will succeed. For now, her attention lies upon mister jerkface.

"If you want to lead so badly, then you shall prove yourself the same way Olimar, I, Crimson, Floppy, and Point did. Take your friends and live. It will be PNF-404 itself, not us, who will judge you."

She could see him smirk triumphantly, slowly straighten himself. He winced from his aching stem but she could see that he intended to pose and make one of his childish speeches. She had no patience for this. So she interrupted him again.

"Bulborbs are not merciful. Blowhogs do not forgive. Shearwigs do not care for you or your friends. To lead is a responsability. To lead is to sacrifice all that you have and are. For every mistake you will make, for every stupid decision you will make, one of your friends will die. And listen to my words and understand them well."

She closed the distance and pointed at his face, pushing her index against his long nose, giving him the mother of all death glares, causing the otherwise taller red colonist to take a step back. She did not allow him to distance himself from her. She wanted him to understand her perfectly.

"PNF-404 does not care about how cool you are. If you fail as a leader, no one will punish you. We won't need to because you will be dead."

Though she could tell that he had been disturbed by her speech and the intensity of it, she could tell he did not give it the thought he should have. But then, this was not her point ; she knew that he would keep trying until he had his way. She recognized Ageratum for what he was now ; one of those arrogant individuals who think they're better than everyone else or that just because getting everyone to listen to you sound cool, they should try to get everyone to do it. He was too immature to understand consequences.

If this had been the wars, he would have learnt the hard way why not everyone got to be a leader. But ever since the end of the second war, the flowerian colony had enjoyed a relative amount of peace. True, attacks by predators was still frequent as were casualties but compared to what it had been before? It was nothing. Simply put, she recognized that the bud-sporting red and his friends had been sheltered and that he needed to see how unforgiving PNF-404 could truly be.

In a way, those thoughts allowed her to finally calm down and let go of her anger. She could see him walk to his friends, resume his cool act, try to get everyone impressed so they'd choose to go with him instead of competent but really shy Point.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" She glanced to her side to see Dandelion, whispering to her.

Point approached her even now, giving nervous glances at his friends as almost everyone seemed to join with Ageratum. As everyone glared at Salsa, he sweated a bit before giving in to the pressure and joining. It was obvious that the flowerian teenager was using peer pressure and perceived coolness to force everyone to go along with his plans.

"This is the only way he will learn, Point. He will learn quickly that making himself look cool won't impress bulborbs."

Dandelion marched confidently toward the group and then, just as Salsa was about to take position among the group of reds near Ageratum, the purple elder cleared his throat, catching everyone's attention.

"I will not follow Ageratum." he said, loudly. "No one in the soldier strain will join Ageratum's new red strain. If you are going, it will be without us."

The old soldier smiled as he saw his fellow purples take position near him and then strenghtening. The confidence of their leader seemed infectuous and soon, all of them stood proudly, returning Ageratum's mocking glare.

"If the purples would rather hang out with the lame wuss instead of the coolest flowerians alive, then it's your loss. You can always play at helping him up from his tripping while we go off to play awesome games."

No purple moved from their position, none of them reacting to his taunt. The bud-sporting colonist's eyes narrowed but instead of insulting them further, he made himself look tall. But the defiance of the purples already caused a shift among the colonists. They looked at Point as he took position near Dandelion. Salsa was the first to walk up to his side, leaving Ageratum's side. Then another flowerian did so, an older one. Then one of the newly plucked ones did so, the red equivalent of a smile on his face as he did so. Soon, dozens of reds walked off to gather around their old leader. Then hundreds.

By the time every red had picked a position, about half of them had returned to Point's side. Ageratum gave Point a death glare but the red elder did not shrink as he usually did. Surrounded by his friends, knowing they would always stand by his side, he stood tall. For the first time in months, Point's usual lack of confidence vanished from his face. Both Dandelion and Aqua smiled as Point finally stood tall, like Crimson used to, assuming his position willingly for the first time. Though he did not know, he already looked a bit more mature than he had been before. Though... maybe not. He still looked kind of silly, actually.

The staring contest thankfully did not last long as the white Aqua had sent out returned and then whispered to her. The blue elder nodded and then decided it was time to break everyone out of their trances.

"Ageratum, one of my friends has finished teaching one of your own friends, a certain Trefle, how to pilot the new ship. You may depart whenever you want. We will contact you at a later date. Good luck."

He gave one last glance at Point before turning to her, smiling. "Alright everybody! Let's ditch the little newly plucked sprout and his wibble friends. We're off! The last one on the ship is a rotten idiot!" Everyone cheered, even despite his absolutely childish insult. Well, everyone in his group.

And soon enough, they begun to board the new ship, rushing to leave. It was a far cry from the ordered maneuvers everyone was used to ; flowerians running all over the place, often slamming into one another, slower or more reckless colonists tripping and stumbling, trying to keep up so they wouldn't be left behind, the ship's flower-shaped propeller starting to activate before even half of the reds were onboard... Ageratum hadn't even started and she could tell how it will go.

"You know... I'm not sure this is the best of ideas."

"Point, he angered Dandelion to the point that he almost choked his bud hard enough to wilt it. And he's still acting like a jerkface. And his friends still cheered for him. The only way they'll learn is the way I, you, and Crimson learnt."

For a moment, the red elder had a look on his face that was more fitting of a newly plucked sprout than that of the oldest flowerian alive. Aqua expected him to put two and two together but unfortunately, his expression remained one of confusion before he finally shrugged, giving up. The blue colonist rolled her eyes, sighed, and explained herself.

"He thinks he's better than you, that being a leader is just pointing and yelling, that anyone can do it. He doesn't know that Olimar and Crimson were not normal. You know. He doesn't. And the only way he'll learn is by trying it out."

"But... what about his friends? My friends?"

And at this moment, Aqua's hard gaze softened. Her stem drooped as she watched the grey ship's access ramps fold, the ship starting to rise.

"There's always those people who are not so smart. You know... those that we beg not to poke the big flowers with eyes and yet, does?"

The red nodded slowly. He knew. Everyone knew. It always ended in tears. Always.

"Sometimes..." she felt herself choking up slightly at the memory but steeled herself. "Sometimes... there are those who don't learn. Who will only realize the predators don't care once their fangs tear into them. Ageratum's friends... I'm sorry, Point."

Silence. Grim, incomfortable, sad silence from the three as the starship slowly rose toward the skies to disappear beyond the clouds.

"S-so many... so many..." Point's legs trembled as he stared at the ship.

"They won't die. I know many of them. They're tough and smart. Even if Ageratum can't lead them, they'll defend themselves and those they love." Dandelion remained calm. "Aqua, you ever did something like this before?"

"Yes but... I admit, never on this scale. I had problems with some scientist strain colonists and Floppy did this too but I have to admit... half of all the reds going with him? I hope I didn't just make a mistake..."

Dandelion sighed and then, soon enough, Aqua did as well. She already knew what he was going to say and she agreed. "What is done is done. All we can do is wait."

What happens next is up to Ageratum and his friends. And well, now that he thinks about it... doesn't he doubt his own skills? He's not exactly the best leader ever, after all. And well, he heard that even Olimar wasn't prepared for his responsabilities, and he was the best leader the flowerians ever had! Maybe... maybe Ageratum will do well. Aqua and Dandelion don't think he'll do well but maybe he'll manage it. He must.

If he doesn't...

* * *

><p>So much drama, so much sadness. But then, so is the lot of the flowerians.<p>

And in a flash, as suddenly as the drama had errupted, it ended. With the departure of Ageratum and his friends, the red and blue flowerians returned to their games, acting as if nothing had happened. Point and Salsa played in the grass with all of their friends, Dandelion and his squad enjoying the sunshine on their stems. Meanwhile, Aqua and many of her friends played in a bunch of nearby pipes, marvelling at what they could find inside.

The day passed quietly and pleasantly.

Later, the flowerians transported the strange pellet-like fruits of the posy-like flowers that acted as their primary source of sustenance. With three leaders coordinating the operation, it went smoothly and without a fuss. In fact, as the soft sunshine caressed their bodies, the colonists begun to forget about the events of the morning and begun to sing, led through their task as in a trance, caring for nothing but their moment of happiness.

As if luck had it, a large metallic thing, whatever it was, could be found behind a bunch of tall grass blades. According to Dandelion, the thing had weighted probably a ton and his back would regret it for days to come but with his help, it was moved back to the blue starship to be studied later.

Hearing the mighty purple elder complain that something was heavy was absurd to most of the young colonists, having never seen him run into anything he could not lift up with ease or at least, with ease given he was helped by friends. So everyone laughed. Then asked him if he was okay. Then everyone laughed again when he said he was okay after all... though his back did hurt a bit from the effort.

Oh and no predator shown up, which is always nice.

In fact... it was quite the nice streak, Point thought to himself. The number of casualties had been... really low lately. No one had died in days, the last death a full week ago. Everyone felt... happy, safe. It was almost surreal. In fact, it felt too surreal. It made the red elder uneasy. He had been alive long enough to know that PNF-404 is not a gentle planet. Even with all of their efforts to cull bulborb populations, this world was still filled with danger. Even if bulborbs were no longer a threat and the dweevils had not attempted to harm any of the strains since they lost the second great war, he was all too aware that this world had many, many, many predator species who would be more than happy to fill in the niche that the old munchers and spiders once held.

Still, he held his feelings of unease to himself... for now. After all, the joy of being with his friends made it easy to forget.

"AAAAAARG!"

Well, that and clumsy movements. For once, not his own though.

"You just fell, stop wailing as though you had been bit in half!" Yep, it was another fine moment of their life on PNF-404.

Point found himself thinking about the medical bay of the starships. When he had first been plucked by Olimar, years ago, the insides of the section had been white and pristine. Ever since the resurrection, the medical bay had been in near constant use. Crimson, yellow, brown, copper, a rainbow of disgusting-looking colors covered the floors, walls, operating tables, and beds of the section. During the night, he and many of his friends had worked to scrub off the stains but so much blood had been spilled and splattered inside that there was a permanent shade to the white, a red-ish taint that refused to leave no matter what.

Mixed with his memories of the screams of the dying and those wished they were dying, the sobbing and wailing of friends as those he cared about breathed their last, and the defeated and empty looks of those who had tried to save them... yeah, he didn't like the medical bay much. No one really liked it actually. But well, when a bulborb ate your left leg, tore out one of your eyeballs, and bent your right arm in fifteen different places, none of which were the way flowerian anatomy intended or even allowed, one simply would not survive long without the medical bay's ressources.

Thankfully, though the pain in that particular scream was very real, Point had heard enough of his kind cry out in agony to know that the one who was letting it out wasn't in any real danger.

... for a moment, Point was very, very disturbed by the fact that he had seen death enough times to know the difference.

He shook it off. It didn't matter. No one died in days, everything is nice, and the worst that they got is:

"MY ANKLE!"

"Oh come on! Your ankle is just kind of... turned... funny... the other way. When were you plucked, yesterday?"

"Y-yes."

"Oh for Olimar's sake..."

Point didn't like to think of death, of pain. Crimson had often asked questions about it all, about the specifics of it. He had never really cared about that. He just... didn't want to feel pain, to see those he love in pain. But if he knew one thing about the medical bay, it was that it somehow produced stuff that made colonists feel better from all the stuff they brought back. It also had a cloning bay of its own. That one only made parts of flowerians though, to replace lost parts.

Would a new ankle be needed for that red? He's newly plucked... what was his name again? Steven, if he remember well. Who named him? Hmmm... not sure. He's not even sure who plucked him again. He was... kind of... distracted by a shiny part of that big thing Aqua moved around. Hmmm... yeah.

"Squish, I swear..."

"Like you're doing any better, Knives!"

"If you keep getting distracted like this, he'll end up really injured, you idiot!" Not everyone that is smart is like Aqua.

Aqua is stuck up but she's actually nice, when he think about it. Knives, though? He's the oldest one to operate the medical bays' systems. Well, the oldest one alive anyway. Likes to poke people with sharp things, find it amusing when it make me people squeal in pain. He's kind of... scary in a way. But when you know him, he's actually a major jerk. Oh and full of himself. Can't forget that part.

"Why do you stare at his ankle like this? You've already treated him! You wanna pollinate him or something? He doesn't have a flower! Give him some room!"

"Polli-what? Why would you say that?" Squish had by now fully ceased to pay attention. This... was not a good thing. Point suddenly found himself looking all over the room and wondering why he wandered in here in the first place.

Oh. Yeah. He wanted to know how Steven was doing. Why didn't he left when he saw that he was in good care? Well... he thinks it's good care anyway. Squish is the best one at patching flowerians together among the reds and Knives is the best one, period.

"Well, you're a girl, right?"

Oh no. Not this. Not this again. This is a repeat of Aqua's nonsense all over again. Point felt a headache coming.

... on second thought, no headache. He doesn't want to have to be looked at by Knives. He look scary. He'd like to stay happy for a couple of extra days.

"Knives, we're half-plant."

"Those are killer hips, very nice. Reminds me of Aqua. Flower's color and appearance indicate a low amount of stamens and a very large carpel. So yeah, female."

"What's with blues and gender?" Squish voiced pretty much every flowerian's thoughts regarding Aqua and, now apparently, Knives.

Unfortunately, so utterly distracted caused Squish to reveal why he was, well, called Squish. Namely, while trying to lean on something so he, or maybe he should refer to him as she from now on, can talk comfortably, he or she ended up, well, pressing his or her hand into Steven's left leg. As in, pressing it with all of his or her weight. Which cause a sound reflective of his or her namesake to be heard. Which meant pain. Which in turn meant a shriek that caused Point's ears to ring.

"YOU SPOILED ROCK-BRAINED MORON!" Point's mind thankfully blocked out further bad words uttered by the grumpy blue.

Okay... since he already know that Steven will live and be back on his feet the next day, hopefully, maybe, he thinks, he can now leave. Because Knives has just taught him bad words he never thought existed before and he has no desire to learn more.

As the door to the medical bay closed behind him, the red flowerian elder let out a sigh of relief. A few whites and reds waiting outside cringed in sympathy as the brief opening of the door allowed them to hear the rather colorful plethora of insults that came out of Knives's mouth. Everyone wisely decided not to comment on that.

"So... yeah. Everything is going alright... I think."

"Good." went one of the scientist strain flowerians.

Awkward silence ensued for a short moment before the white spoke up again. "If you stay stressed like this all the time, you'll wilt early."

Point found himself suddenly startled. He blinked a few times rapidly before seeing what he thought was a smile on the smaller flowerian's face. "I know you're worried about your friends who went with Ageratum but worrying won't change anything. My name's Gale."

The red stared at the extended hand before grabbing it and shaking it weakly. At least, he thought this was what he was supposed to do, right? The white seemed happy and confident, somehow.

"Wait... I think you were running around among Ageratum's friends earlier, right?"

"Yep! Was trying to find someone who would make for a good pilot. You know... since if Ageratum touch the ship's computer, I'm sure he'll crash it within minutes."

That... made the red flowerian feel rather nervous. He glanced at the others for a moment before turning back to Gale. "Errr... still, they'll be alright, right?"

"Oh? Nope! Nope nope nope! Negative! Absolutely negative! They'll be all dead within the month. I guarantee it."

Gale blinked a few times as he saw everyone glaring at him. He was also slightly confused at the red elder's face suddenly being so pale. Doesn't flowerians turn into members of other strains only if you throw them into a genetic resequencer? Why had his face turned so white?

"Gale... what did we tell you about this kind of stuff?" Why are the others facepalming?

"Oh! Oh oh! I remember! Aqua told me! But... isn't lying kind of bad?"

"You could have worded it... slightly differently."

"But it's true!"

A second round of facepalming among his friends. Gale really didn't get what he did wrong here. Lying is bad and he said the truth, right? Shouldn't everyone be happy that he gave the correct odds?

"Will... will we be able to contact them? Just in case they run into trouble?" Why is the red elder sounding so scared all of a sudden? He's not the one who is with the incompetent jerkface and will probably be food within the next few weeks!

"Sure! At least, until Trefle dies. Then, they'll be screwed. But until then, they'll be able to operate the ship and all of its systems."

Point sighed. Why didn't he accept to join Aqua in that game she's coming up with? He really, really would have prefered not to learn any of this. Guess he'll have nightmares for the next few days. To think... no. No. He won't think about it all. If he panic and start becoming depressed, it won't change anything. He... he must focus on his friends. On doing things with them. And well, Aqua wants to hang out with him for a while. He... he'll just focus on that...

* * *

><p>Ageratum was the image of confidence. He had to be. After all, he's the awesomest leader the flowerians ever saw, better even than those Oli... Holee... Oli-something and Crim-stuff morons. They mustn't have been very good leaders if they're not here anymore anyway.<p>

He sighed and thought about how the last few days had went ever since he took over.

Stupid bulborbs, stupid wollywogs, stupid sheargrubs, stupid everything. Why had finding a landing spot been so difficult? The ship had tipped over at least a million times before they could land the dumb thing correctly! Trefle was really more of an idiot than he thought possible.

And why had everything suddenly decided to gang up on him all of a sudden? Point was a lame scaredy newly plucked sprout so of course he always landed in big nice clearings hours away from the cool places. So he had decided to land right next to the cool places. Why carry stuff all over the place when he can land the ship right next to them, right?

He mulled over the constant ambushes. How did those monsters know he was coming? Was the ship really this noisy? This made no sense!

For a moment, the bud-sporting red almost froze, his eyes widened, the irises shrunk to dots. The bodies, the torn limbs and stems, and the blood... so... so much blood...

What is he doing? Of course people bleed when bitten and otherwise torn apart! He's not some newly plucked sprout! He saw his share of limbs flying all over the place!

... s-so much blood... empty eyes...

He shuddered. He... he can get more. They were lame people. They... they were unfunny, fat, slow, dumb. They wouldn't have let themselves be caught if they had been anywhere as awesome as he is. And well, just bring bio matter to the ship and he'll have replacements. No one cares about them. Yeah... no one cares about them... and... their really, really empty eyes... and the blood everywhere... and the disembodied hands... and... and... no one cares.

He was surrounded by idiots. He thought they would be smarter than this.

"WHAT DO I DO? HOW DO I DO THAT?!"

So stupid. They had just run all over the place no matter how much he yelled at them to just kill the things.

"Hmmm... Ageratum?"

Who was that? Oh. It's that particular wuss. The one that kept complaining earlier.

He said something but that wasn't important. What was important was that he didn't say what he was supposed to. "Stop. Who am I, again?"

"... Ageratum?"

"Try again, dweeb."

"M-mister Ageratum?"

So he didn't know his place. Another idiot. Why was he surrounded by idiots? For once that a day had went well and he had to deal with more idiots. He got up and glared at the idiot.

"Try again."

The idiot was growing more and more nervous. Can he just say it and stop wasting his time already?

"Great awesomest and greatest and bestest leader ever who is also the coolest ever Ageratum."

Finally! "Good. Now what do you want?"

"Well, mister Ageratum, I-"

"Try again!" He was this close to punching the idiot in the face. He just said his title just now! Why can't he do it again? Why is he panicking? Oh no. He's not going to cry. If he does, he'll throw him off the ship.

"Great awesomest and greatest and bestest leader ever who is also the coolest ever Ageratum, we've just been wondering if perhaps, just maybe, we could have bigger rations tonight."

Huh? What was that idiot talking about now? "Hey, I gave you plenty of food. Just as much as you deserve."

"B-but I saw you and your friends eat triple the normal rations and we worked hard all day and we're so tired and-"

"Shut up! I'm cutting your rations in half!"

"B-but but-"

"I'm cutting them more now! No dinner tomorrow! Now shoo!"

The scaredy idiot finally got the message and ran away. Really, what was he complaining about? When he had finished eating without anyone to limit his ration, he had made sure that what was left had been distributed equally. Well, mostly equally. He gave double portions to his friends and cut in half the rations of the nerds. Their expressions were priceless! He'll definitely do that tomorrow too.

Where was he? Oh, yes. Rations. They looked big enough, why did he complain? He must have been jealous or something. That had to be it. After all, didn't some of the nerds say that being half-plant, they can survive off sunshine and water for the most part? So why complain about rations when they don't really need them that much anyway?

All this nonsense... was Point really dealing with this every single day? No, he was an idiot who run after butterflies and faceplant all the time. His idea of being the leader was to screech in terror and hide if he see his own shadow. He must be a better leader than him, absolutely sure. Anything that dweeb can do, he can do better!

He fidgeted in his seat. This chair was incomfortable. Why couldn't he get a better chair?

Someone else came. He wasn't really paying attention. He just wondered what kind of cool game they could all play tomorrow. That had been fun, that's for sure. No Point to complain about how dangerous what they're doing is, no Dandelion to keep everyone from going wherever they want... he never had this much fun when the idiot had been the leader, that's for sure!

Something something about medical supplies, whatever that meant. Something something about running low on bio matter. Something something about water running out.

"Yeah yeah got it. We'll land near one of the seas and get some water."

"Err... sir, we can't do that."

He gave the red who was giving him the news about the ship's ressources a baleful glare. "Seas have lots of water. We go there, we get water. Did you land on your head when you were plucked out? And use my real title!"

"Great awesomest and greatest and bestest leader ever who is also the coolest ever, we can't use seawater."

"Water is water duh."

The idiot was obviously deeply stupid. Definitely landed on his head when plucked. Water is water, after all.

"Great awesomest and greatest and bestest leader ever who is also the coolest ever, seawater is toxic. We-"

He laughed. Now that was a stupid statement! "Man! You're such an idiot! Saying water is toxic? Yeah right!"

"Sir, you re-"

"Use my title."

Well, he may be an idiot but the face he's doing is priceless! He pointed at him and started to laugh out loud. What kind of hilarous nonsense will he say next?

"Great awesomest and greatest and bestest leader ever who is also the coolest ever, seawater and freshwater are not the same, at all. Unless we put it in our machines and turn it into freshwater, drinking seawater will kill us."

"And how do you know that?" He bet he doesn't. Because that idiot is, well, idiotic. Ha-ha!

"It's what the computer says!"

"Do the computer says you got a stupid face?"

"Sir, I'm serious!"

He kept laughing. Yet the idiot remained there. So he's serious, huh? What a dweeb! "First, use my real title. Or else, I'll start thinking you're not really my friend. You are my friend, right?"

"Y-yes..." Ha! He's afraid. Good. He knows he doesn't want to lose his friendship.

"Then go on."

"Great awesomest and greatest and bestest leader ever who is also the coolest ever... the computer says using seawater is a really, really bad idea. Like, dangerous-bad. And we need water. And new medical supplies. And more bio matter. And-"

"Shut up. One thing at a time." The bud-sporting red brought a hand to his chin and thought about the issue. So they need water. But rivers and lakes are often filled with monsters and well, his strain is turning out to be made of wusses who can't beat up the simplest of baddies. So that option's out. And well, why search for a river when there's so much water in the seas that it seems the whole planet is blue if you're high up enough?

Nope. He got a better idea. "You said putting seawater in the machines turn it into freshwater."

"Yes but-"

"Good! Then we'll do just that!"

"But sir-"

"My title."

Why did he cringe instead of saying his title? Seriously, it's not that hard! Besides, his title is awesome, like he is! Who wouldn't want to say it! It's a really awesome title for an awesome leader! Yeah! Awesome-tastic!

"Great awesomest and greatest and bestest leader ever who is also the coolest ever, the ship use up electricity for everything, including making the machines work and if it's overused, it will use up fuel to compensate for what sunshine doesn't give it. Making seawater into freshwater, especially if we make enough for everyone, will consume huge amounts of electricity. We'll run out of energy within a week..."

"Then we'll just get more fuel."

More cringing? What now? "Sir, that's-"

"My title."

"Great awesomest and greatest and bestest leader ever who is also the coolest ever, fuel is the hardest thing to get. We have to find very special metals that are hidden deep underground. We don't have whites to dig deep enough and all of the known caves have been cleaned out already."

The subject was starting to make his head hurts. Problems on top of problems. "Can you ever say something nice for once? You always sound so down and depressing and you've been that way ever since we left the wuss! What's your problem?"

"S-sir, I'm-"

"Use my title!" He's starting to be fed up of the moron. Always giving bad news, always making it sound like they don't have anything! And of course, always forgetting his title! Or is he really forgetting it? Maybe he's trying to be a jerk! Yeah, he got to be a jerk, with his stupid face, his dweeb expression, and always making that fake sad face all the time! So annoying!

"Great awesomest and greatest and bestest leader ever who is also the coolest ever... all I'm doing is telling you what we need, what we got on the ship... It's... it's not my fault. It's what we got..."

"Whatever! Medical something, bio stuff, what about them? Just shoot already!"

"Sir, I-"

"MY TITLE!" this time he was angry. He got up to the dweeb's face and screamed it at his face, leaning down as he did so.

... and now he's standing there, wide-eyed, shaking. A wuss, a total wuss. He hates wusses! Must be one of the number one wuss's wussy friends who tried to follow him because he wants to be cool too! Well, he's a wuss and he'll always be a wuss!

"Great awesomest and greatest and bestest leader ever who is also the coolest ever..." why did he whisper it?

"Louder!"

"Great awesomest and greatest and bestest leader ever who is also the coolest ever." Still, not loud enough.

"I said, louder!"

"Great awesomest and greatest and bestest leader ever who is also the coolest ever!"

He stepped back and sat back on his chair. He narrowed his eyes, arms crossing as the wuss continued shaking.

"We-we-we have so... so very little bio matter. The machines in the medical bay are blinking yellow. If they blink red... we may not be able to replace lost limbs anymore. And without bio matter, we won't be able to make more food. We... we need to find stuff, sir."

_BAM!_

His punch floored the wuss. He grabbed him by the neck and lifted him up, pressing hise nose against his, faces so close, making sure he'd see his angered expression clearly.

"Now listen up, dweeb. You'll stop doing that on purpose or I'm booting you out of the ship. Got it?"

A wussy expression of terror! He hate wusses! He squeezed his neck and screamed at him. "GOT IT?!"

He nodded very quickly. Is he... crying? Idiot! He threw him into the floor and kicked him in the ribs. "Stop being a jerkface to me! All you've done is complaining when EVERYONE knows I'm doing well! Stop mangling my title and stop trying to make me feel bad! Now GET OUT!"

Geez, what an unbearable moron! He scrambled out, crying as if he was the one at fault when he's been trying to make him feel like a bad leader with his nonsense! Tomorrow, he'll use him as bait to run away if monsters show up again.

Well, that was stressful. He sighed and then batted away his stem as it drooped in front of his face. Tomorrow should go better.

* * *

><p>Is it truly normal for everyone to die so much? The question just wouldn't leave Ageratum's mind and the more days passed, the more often it came back.<p>

It had to be. After all, he's the bestest, most awesomest, coolest leader ever. He and his friends played an awesome game the last few days, a game where different teams tried to carry a ball around. Of course, he picked the fastest, strongest, coolest for his team and they all played against the dweebs of the strain, ramming them, slamming them down, showing off how much more awesome they were than them.

They kept complaining about wanting to be on his team but who cares about nerds? Too bad they said they didn't want to play afterward though. What a bunch of killjoys! Who cares if they hurt all over or they're not having fun? They're just being jerks.

Of course, he got his revenge later that day. So they're low on bio matter, supposedly. He's not sure. Well, that wuss who is constantly shaking and stuttering like an idiot while telling him nonsense said so but he's a jerk so who knows? He could be lying. But his mind is wandering off too much now, isn't it? So they were carrying stuff back to the ship. Big posy fruits and other stuff like that. So he tickled and threw rocks at some of the nerds while they were carrying their things. The idiots dropped their load on their own feet and begun to shriek and hop all over the place! It was hilarous! Everyone laughed at them! It was fun!

He repeated that on later days of the week. Sure brightened up a dull day.

Though now that he's thinking about it... they've been having a lot of dead people. Twenty-three have been eaten today. Thirteen were eaten the other day. A dozen the day before that. At the start of the week, thirty-something vanished. And according to the shaking wuss, he's apparently forgetting three to five people on the planet every sunset.

Pffft. What if he's not forgetting them? Their little cries and shrieks are really funny! Why do they panic that much anyway? In fact... now that he think about it, it's not that dangerous during daytime. Why should it be more during night time? The shaking wuss says it's because predators sleep during the day. They seem pretty awake to him during the day! He must be lying, as usual.

Still... wonder why he never found anyone after he returned from space? Well... at least... anyone... whole...

S-so much blood...

No! It must be normal. Didn't Dandelion used to say that people dying was normal on this planet? Still... is it him or is the ship... a bit more quiet than usual, this week?

Must be the wusses. They've been... acting strangely lately. He even heard some of them say that they wish Point was here! Of course, he punched them in the face, what a bunch of jerkfaces! And then everyone took turns punching them in the belly while he held their arms. But well, they're mean jerks who lie all the time so who cares?

He really ought to find a way to get the wusses to behave. And why did the machines indicate empty when he tried to get a third serving of food tonight? Some wuss must have eaten more than he allowed! Not only are they jerks who are mean to him but they're stealing stuff from him! Stuff that is his!

"Great awesomest and greatest and bestest leader ever who is also the coolest ever..." Speaking of jerks, here comes the stuttering one. He stared at him. He was so sick of him. Why couldn't he get himself eaten or something? "Our stocks of bio matter are dangerously low..."

"And we all know whose fault it is." He glared at the idiot, feeling his patience being thin tonight.

"G-G-Great awesomest and greatest and bestest leader ever who is also the coolest ever?"

"It's your fault. Your fault and that of other wusses like you!" he pointed at the red as he backed away, his eyes widening. Geez, he's so sick of his stupid face! "We're all supposed to help one another, to work together to bring stuff back to the ship but you screw up everything!"

"B-b-but..." Oh good, he's starting to cry. As if he wasn't annoying enough! "You kept making everyone drop their loads and we're so tired and-"

"Stop lying!" he yelled at him, making him drop to the floor, holding his head as he whimpered. What a moron! He was just about to beat him up again. He deserve it, that's for sure! "I saw all that stuff being brought back and yet, when I went to get my dinner, the machine's lights blinked red!"

"G-G-Great... Great... awes... awes..."

"YOU steal food! YOU are being a jerk! It's all YOUR fault!" He kicked the idiot into the sides, knocking him over. Oh yes, that jerk would pay for being a meanie to him!

"Great awesomest and greatest and bestest leader ever who is also the coolest ever!" he blurted out before he flattened his nose with one good punch. Yet the moron kept talking! While crying at the same time! "I-if you and your friends didn't take triple rations..."

"WHAT?!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. "YOU'RE SAYING THIS IS MY FAULT?!"

"Maybe... if you just... took less-"

Ageratum lost his temper. He couldn't bear the sight of his face anymore. He slammed his fist into the wuss's face repeatedly. He flattened his nose, hard. Made it cave in. Kept punching. Kept squeezing the neck. The bud-sporting flowerian's eyes widened in shock as he felt the jerk's legs kick him into the belly. He saw his stem whip around.

He punched. Kept punching until massive purple spots formed on its face. The jerk was trying to beat him up! Not if he beat him up first! With fists and stem, he kept slamming into his face. It felt... weird. Harder and yet softer. The wuss was a poor fighter of course, being a wuss. Those kicks seemed not even remotely aimed correctly and he just kept hitting his hand around his neck.

Something cracked. He saw red even more than before. Something sticky, disgusting, strangely warm was covering his hand. It reminded him of when he fought monsters and killed them. The cracking sound was... even similar.

Why was he panting all of a sudden? The wuss... his face... his... He let out what sounded like a gurgling sound and spat out sticky, red liquid on his arm. What was... what...?

His arms are covered in blood. The wuss's face is covered in blood. He can't see his left eye anymore.

His mind is blank. What happened? He let go of the idiot's neck and... he just fell. He didn't get up. He didn't try to. He's... not moving. Wait! He twitched once!

He slowly got up. Since when had he been kneeling over the wuss? Anyway, he got up and then, gave him a good kick to the sides.

Why didn't he react? Usually, he whimper when he does that!

He felt... dirty all of a sudden. Blood was covering his arms. And in fact, a bit of his face too. And... and...

Why is he feeling so... so strange? Where is he? This is his room right? This is so surreal...

Somebody entered the room. In fact, several people. There were gasps. He didn't care. He just... didn't know anymore what was going on. But he heard someone, someone distant. The voice was asking him what happened.

"J-jerk tried to beat me up... beat him first..." It took him more time than he thought it would take to say this. Why did he feel so... so weird?

They carried him out of the room. He didn't care. He... he just wanted the blood off his arms. Off his face. Off his everything. He couldn't stand it. Why... why is everything going wrong? Why is everyone so mean to him?

He just need... just need to sit down. Think. Yeah... just... think.

* * *

><p>Third week, right? He's losing track of the time. He hate sunsets. He despise them. Or maybe he hate mornings more?<p>

He's surrounded by jerkfaces, by meanies who hate him and want to steal his things. His friends are okay but everyone else? Wusses, idiots, morons, and jerks.

Well, more exactly, he once thought he had friends.

Trefle is dead. A sheargrub grabbed him by the ankles. He screamed and sobbed the entire time. Every time he sunk into the set of jaws, blood splattered all over the ground and his screams turned into increasingly incoherent shrieks. Crunching and squishy sounds. When he was almost inside completely, he kind of went limp, his eyes empty and glassy. He was no longer struggling when his head vanished inside the thing's mouth.

How can something barely bigger than a flowerian eat one? One of the nerds had tried to explain to him. Of course, he didn't listen because he's a nerd and like all the other wusses, he's a liar. But what little he heard anyway because the nerd spoke until he punched him in the face...

Nightmares. He can't sleep anymore.

Stupid wusses and explaining what being eaten is like!

The ship is... a lot quieter now. The monsters are everywhere. They hate him. They seek him out. Only possible explanation. How else would monsters ambush his strain but not Point's? He had spoken with Aqua the other day, the day before Trefle was eaten. Of course, he was happy to say that everything went well.

Now... he wonder if... no. Can't ask for help from a nerd. He hates him. They all hate him. They'd laugh. And anyway, he's better than them.

This is a new morning. The ship must land, right? Someone must make it land, right? Trefle used to make it land but well, he's dead now.

He had never really noticed it but the interface for the computer that controlled the ship was... well, it had a lot of keys. And why is the screen all black? But well, if Trefle could do it, he can do it. After all, if that wuss could do it, surely it can't be hard to do.

He looked at the keys. So Trefle... pushed them. Alright!

He brought his hands down and tried to imitate what he remembered Trefle doing. Namely, making his fingers move up and down in a random pattern. The screen filled with... stuff. And he saw what seemed to be a weird circle. That wasn't what he wanted! He wanted the ship to land!

Huh... blinky red lights? Blinky red lights are bad, right? He did exactly as Trefle used to! Why would the-

**_BOOOOM!_**

Something hard hit his head.

* * *

><p>His head hurts. His arms hurts. His stem hurts. His everything hurts. But most importantly, his head hurts. A lot. His ears are ringing. Mostly because of that loud, repetitive sound. He tried to get up but every time he reached for the floor, he found himself slipping somehow.<p>

Is he... is this still the ship? Everything is dark, with a red light. Then he realized that the floor was diagonal instead of horizontal. In fact, the whole room was angled the wrong way. Why? What happened? And what is that sound?

He made it, against all odds, to the door, which was jammed open. He looked to one of the halls beyond and... pipes, wiring all over the place, bent metal panels torn off the walls, a small fire and smoke all over the place... this is not normal. This is not normal at all.

Did the ship land? What happened? He had to get out, to get a look from outside!

... huh?

He hit his foot over something. He glanced and-

Empty eyes. Blood. Bent neck. No movement. So much blood...

There were shapes. An arm without an owner. A stem without an owner. Figures leaning against the walls, their heads half-flattened against them and their eyes so very empty. Corpses. Corpses everywhere.

Out. He had to get out. Get away.

But the access ramp was upward. He had to climb instead of simply walking off. And why was the ramp all bent? How is he going to get out?

... oh. The ground is... not that far. This trench behind the ship look kind of... well, not natural. What kind of creepy monster did it? Did something grab the ship?

He lept off. Others were outside. They were stumbling, as if confused. A few hundreds or so, he wasn't sure and didn't care. He turned around.

... oh. Oh... no. No. No no no... no...

The ship was on its side, like he had tipped it the other days. But... it was burning. The access ramps were bent and broken. The propeller had many of its metallic petals scattered all over the place. Large gashes could be seen on the hull.

The ship had crashed. They were stranded.

Everyone was talking. Some were whimpered. What? Wusses? Now? He glanced at the source of the whimper and... wait... he's being carried by another? Why would someone willingly touch a wuss?

... where is his right arm?

Blood... b-blood... stump... red... so much...

No. He mustn't think about that.

"M-mister Ageratum? What... what will we do now?" He blinked a few times. One of the newly plucked ones, just before the day Trefle had died. Many of the newly plucked were wusses who cried because they were hungry, because they were bored, because no one wanted to be their friends. As if someone would be the friend of a wussy sprout who cries.

"We'll get metal. We'll repair the ship."

"But... how?"

"Shut up! Just do what I say!" What did that wuss know? All they do is bring metal to the ships and... the ships are... somehow... repaired or something. It's how they've always done it. If the nerds can do it, can't be hard or complicated.

And why did the interface for the ship not work? Trefle must have done something to it, something to make him look bad! He was a jerk, a wuss, he hated him! Like everyone! He can't trust anyone! They're all jerks!

"Let's go!" He called out. For some reason, he was largely ignored. Are they all trying to be mean to him? "I SAID, LET'S GO!"

Ha! Now they're moving to get behind him! Good! Still, he's watching them! They must want to hurt him, to not listen to him like that! He can't trust them! That one... the one with the flower... why is he staring? Or maybe what the two bud-sporting ones in the back were talking about hurting him, when he wasn't looking? Jerks! All of them!

He'll show them. He'll show all of them. He won't let anyone be mean to him! And if anyone try to beat him up... no! He'll beat them up first! Yeah! And then everyone will know he's the best, awesomest ever! And he'll get new sprouts, who won't be wusses and will be awesome and will be his friends and... and... he won't have only jerks around him and... and...

Is he crying? Why would he be crying? No! They mustn't see him! The jerks would see him and ambush him! Are they in league with the monsters? He never saw monsters attack Point's bunch of idiots so much! They're all against him! Jerks, all of them!

* * *

><p>Point was still shaking a bit. Even now, Salsa and Dandelion worked together with many of his friends to drag the remains of what had to be the largest snaggret they had ever seen back to the ships.<p>

"That was a really clever maneuver there, Aqua! Snaring that snaggret by digging around its foot so it trips when it tries to go back underground!"

The blue elder smiled widely. "Thanks! To be fair, I was really not sure it would work..."

"Well, that was quite the thing!" The yellow flowerian joined his hands behind his head, his stem waving slightly in the nightly breeze. "Well, now that we cleared up a path, I think we can finally get started, right?"

The blue's smile vanished as she rebecame serious and nodded. "Yes, quite. The new scanners have detected exotic materials in this valley. There is also a special type of stone, which I think we'll be able to use to craft concrete."

"Do you think it will be enough? We all know what happened to the original colonists..."

"We have a few more months before the bulborb population return to a dangerous level and we now know how to cull them. Beside, we do not have a choice. The ships are large but not that much. We will need ground facilities to pull off more ambitious projects." She looked beyond, to the valley. "I won't be taking chances though. The old complex is half-submerged, barring entry to most predator life-forms and with the rock from this valley, we'll reinforce the walls and build new ones, just in case. I have no intention to die anytime soon, Floppy."

Silence as the three just stood there, feeling the cool night air. Normally, they would never be down here with all their friends but ever since Floppy had found this strange region where the predators sleeps at night, they had been busy indeed. The amount of stuff they had found during the last month had been incredible!

"So... what do you think Olimar would say?"

The red flowerian was brought out of his trance by the yellow elder's words. He turned to him, blinking rapidly. "Huh?"

"First time all of our strains have been cooperating since the great wars. In fact, first time we actually worked all together without him to lead us!" The yellow flowerian was silent for a moment. "I wonder... if he would be proud of us."

"I like to think so. He was so worried about if we'd be able to fend off on our own..." said the blue elder, more to herself than anything else.

But Point was thinking of something else. "If he had been here... we wouldn't have lost so many fighting our way here..."

He stared at his feet, his stem drooping, the flower in front of his face. Seeing his friend slump like this, Floppy smiled and approached him. "Don't be so gloomy. We'll miss them, all of us... but we did our best, all of us. That's what's important."

He nodded. To shift the blame exclusively to himself when he had done everything he could was to insult his late friends' efforts too. There were limits to what a flowerian could do, no matter how well-led. Even under Olimar, colonists had died after all.

"Well... I guess that's that, huh?" he said, turning to the blue elder. She nodded.

"Yes. Now that the area is secure, we'll be able to land directly in the valley the next night. I suggest we rotate which strain works, as to not trouble our sleep schedules more than necessary. Red yellow blue sounds about right?"

"One would think you're trying to get some extra sleep, suggesting you go last!" poked the large-eared flowerian, his tone playful.

"Oh? Would you rather have it be ladies first? I can have my strain go first, if you want."

"We're half-plant and you know what, I said that enough. Aren't most of your strain made up of masculine people anyway?" Aqua's smile widened at the red flowerian's comment.

"Sorry. I'm not as good at you when it comes to puns."

"I'm not really good with puns..." went Point, scratching the back of his head.

"And what do you think it means about me, huh?" The blue relaxed for a moment. "It's alright."

Floppy stared at the other two elders and then, turned around. "Well, since we're done here, I'll go check on Dandelion and Gale. You all take care!"

The two waved energically as he left, leaving the two of them alone. For a moment, both flowerians stood there, silent, watching him walking away. Though it evaded Point's notice, Aqua noticed that the yellow elder was oddly happy as he left. Was he looking forward to something or had he played some kind of prank? She liked to think that she was getting better at guessing when he was joking so his sudden spree of happiness seemed weird to her. Well, if he's happy, then it's good. As long as those she care about are happy, then all is good for the most part.

"So... I guess we probably should go..." said the blue elder.

But the red one was not moving. He was looking up, staring at the sky. For a moment, she wondered why he might be standing like this and then, she stared up too. The moon was clearly visible, illuminating the area slightly...

"You know... I never noticed it before but... it's so pretty."

She found herself nodding. He was right. "Predators are largely nocturnal in most locales. We never really had the opportunity to watch the skies like this..."

But she could tell it wasn't just the moon. The moon could be seen, even if dimly, during daytime during certain days. No, she knew it was something else that caught his attention. Something that also caught hers...

"Do you think... our ancestors really did live among the stars? Like Olimar and his people?"

"Yes." she said, quietly. "And someday... our ships will fly among them, like theirs does."

"Do you think... that's possible?" And for a moment, beneath the child-like wonder, beneath the enthusiasm, beneath all of his cute attitude... she saw him tired. Tired of being afraid. Tired of being sad. Tired of not knowing if this day would be his last. And for a moment, she felt old. So old. She knew rationally that it wasn't true, that physically she was in her prime, that no flowerian alive had even lived close to the amount of years necessary for degeneration to kick in. But it didn't matter. She felt... old. And tired, too. "That... we'll live to see it?"

And she understood exactly why she felt so old. To Olimar, a month, even a year was nothing. To his people, to most species, it was nothing. To flowerians, it should be nothing too yet... when the lifespan of a flowerian could be counted in days, weeks usually, a... mere... year was forever.

For all of her plans, she realized that there was no guarantee that a fiery blowhog wouldn't turn her into a pile of ashes tomorrow or that a water dumple wouldn't just snatch her out of existence.

"I... I don't know, actually."

"I hope we'll live to see next week, Aqua. I... I hope we'll all live to see next week..."

But they won't. The streak of good luck had ended. Four. This was the number of flowerians who did not return on average everyday. Sometimes less, often more. Every strain lost four colonists per day. Newly plucked sprouts or survivors from the past wars, it didn't matter.

Maybe they'll live... but their friends won't. Not all of them. Idly, Aqua wondered... when will it be her time? When will she be on the casualty list? Will... it hurts? Flashes of the dead came to her. Screams, sobs, cries for mercy, shrieks of agony, splattering of blood, dismembered limbs, limp bodies with empty eyes, their necks twisted in impossible angles... what would be her fate? How will it end?

The databases speaks of peaceful death. Of the end of degeneration, of flowerians who simply lived as long as they could and slowly wilted, going to sleep and never waking up. It... sounded so ridiculous. Could anyone survive long enough for death to claim them without pain? Crimson died struggling, trying to breathe as Titan Dweevil crushed his windpipes beyond the point where his flower could compensate.

How will she die? How will those she care about dies?

"I want to live, Point." She did not need to look at him to know he was staring at her, probably with that curious gaze of his. Always so curious. In a way... she envied him. Even after all the death he had seen, he could still play, laugh, and sing as if he had been freshly plucked. Sometimes... she felt as if the sheer brutality of PNF-404 and its demands on her mind had turned her heart hard and cold. "I just want those I love to live. Is that asking so much? That's all I really want."

She felt his hand grab hers. She looked at him, this time. She saw how he was staring at her. "I think... it's what everyone wants."

Safety, life. Olimar had given them the greatest of all gifts that could be given. Life, movement. Every day, they struggled not just to preserve the gift he had given them but to enjoy it, to honor it.

PNF-404 did not care for them. At times, she was actually convinced the planet itself might hate them, despise them, try to punish them for their ancestors' insult by abandonning it for the gentle reaches of space. Every day, flowerians died, bleeding and dying so that those they loved lived and could be happy.

She would not insult Olimar's gift, the gift given to her by Crimson's sacrifice, by that of all of her dead friends' deaths by wallowing in sadness. They were gone... so that she, and Point, could be here.

And as she felt his hand against hers, she knew that he indeed was still here. May tomorrow come as it may. Tonight... they were still here and maybe, in the end, that was what mattered.

For a moment, the two pondered if they should get moving. Floppy was probably on his way, as was everyone. But then, the night is still young. They had plenty of time. There was no predators anywhere near them. It was just the two of them.

The red flowerian blinked a few times as the blue grabbed his other hand. She was smiling in a way that he had not seen often on her face. In fact, it took him a few seconds to recognize the happiness all over her features. Given she was so serious so often, he rarely got to see her like this and well, it was the first time he saw that expression up close. It was pretty. He definitely wished she'd smile more.

"Aren't you... bothered?" For a moment, he did not know why she asked this. But as he felt her forehead pressing against his, he realized that they were practically touching. He thought about it for a moment... and then realized that he actually hadn't really touched any blue with more than an occasional poke.

It was funny. Given how Aqua was a blue flowerian and could survive underwater when he could not, he had expected her skin to be different.

And now, she was giggling? Since when do the ever-serious Aqua giggle? "You look so happy... I saw you happy before but never like this, Point."

"I never saw you this happy either, Aqua. Your smile... it's beautiful."

The same thought came to the two. The previous question of if they should get moving passed by them. Or at least, until their sensitive stems touched. For a moment, the pleasant smell of a flower flowed into Point's mind only, there was no flower close to his nose. It took him a few seconds to realize that this was because his flower and Aqua's were touching.

"Doesn't... this bother you?" she asked.

He remembered the jokes, their past fights and arguments. But that was the past. Right now, under the starry sky, none of this mattered. "No. Not at all."

They would think about the future and the past later. Right now, they were alive and for once, the red and blue flowerians stopped and just... savored the wonder of life. They were alive, and they loved every second of it. This was the fruit of their efforts, of their struggles. Life. And the wonders, no matter how grand or small.

* * *

><p>Dandelion wasn't quite sure he was liking the yellow attitude's right now. He had spent many hours just standing outside the ships, in the landing zone, staring in the horizon with a mischeveous grin. At least, he thought it mischeveous. The grin was really, really strange and he couldn't find the correct word to define it. But well, it was the closest definition he could think of.<p>

"We've finished loading the last of the corpses and materials aboard the ships. What are you grinning at like this?"

"Just waitin' for Point and Aqua to return."

The old purple colonist stared at his smaller but older yellow counterpart, not sure why his tone sounded so playful. It reminded him of that nonsense about the two pollinating. Whatever the carefree big-eared flowerian had read in the computers' database for him to start acting this way, the purple had no intention of ever reading. The stars knew how much nonsense happened among the flowerians lately.

"We're still many hours away from morning. For all we know, they might be planning out tomorrow's operation. Seriously, no need to worry. Besides, if Point goof off, Aqua will be there to fix the issue."

"Oh no, oh no no no! I'm not worried about them. I'm just... waiting for something else."

The purple gave the yellow a flat stare. Yeah, he definitely doesn't want to get mixed up with whatever nonsense the elder had thought of. "Whatever. I'll just go patrol the area one more time."

"Whatever floats your way, dude."

Floppy did not turn his gaze away as he heard purple grumpypants go off for yet another patrol. If patrolling incessently areas that are confirmed secure and clean is what makes him happy, then whatever right? He couldn't wait to see his friends come back and well, his patience was rewarded.

"Ow!"

A feminine giggle. "Seriously, watch where you're going. Your nose will thank you forever once you do."

"I'm alright! See, just had to pull on my nose and there, good as new!"

Yet another giggle. "One would think you newly plucked, I swear..."

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"Well, if you want to be bulbear food, yeah..."

"Oh, throw yourself at a sheargrub pack!"

He would recognize the voices and the playful insults anywhere. Point and Aqua. But Aqua, though she did like to flaunt her decision to identify as female, did not usually giggle like this. In fact, the two sounded happy as though they had just busted open a beady-long-legs's nest and bathed in the resulting pond of egg yolk.

That was not the only difference though. They held hands as they walked. Well, that was something new! He had seen Olimar hold the hands of some flowerians when they walked and well, so had Crimson, himself, and Aqua. But they had done this to show around newly plucked colonists or to reassure scared ones. The way they held hands just looked different, somehow. And well, as they stepped out of the shadows and into the moonlit landing zone proper, he noticed that it was because of several cases.

Notably, the two were blushing as though they had been dozed in ultra-spicy spray... which was obviously not the case given they moved at a normal speed and that all remaining spcicy spray had been used up and could not be recreated anyway.

Obviously, the two noticed his expression because they instantly became annoyed.

"So you two-"

"If you complete this sentence, I will be feeding you to a shearwig, Floppy."

"And I-"

"And I will be feeding you to it feet-first."

"You're such a killjoy, Aqua."

"Only because you say stupid things."

He somehow found it hilarous how they still held hands despite both giving him death glares. It was just too funny.

"Oh, so you were using your superior sense of direction to lead Point back to the landing zone?"

Oh! They finally noticed! And here they are, looking so embarassed! The yellow decided to poke them further. "Seriously, why do you two keep denying it?"

The blue facepalmed while his other friend sighed, looking at his feet and shaking his head as though he had said something stupid. Pfft. They're just upset because he guessed what's up between them and their odd behaviour!

"Look for the last time, what we were doing that night... you know what? Nevermind." Point sighed.

"I explained a thousand times, Floppy, a thousand times, why this can't work. Why can't you get that in your brain for once?"

"Well, you kind of asked for it when you insisted to be called female. I mean, gender has a particular function, you know!"

"That's sexist, Floppy."

"Half-plant... we're half-plant... We! Don't! Have! Genders!" muttered the red, his tone raising in volume and aggravation as he put extra emphasis on his statement.

"Well, whatever you say." went Floppy, nodding to himself. "Well, since I'm not wanted here, I'll leave you two lovebirds to do your thing!"

At this moment, the two other elders cleared the distance separating them from him and then, simultaneously, Point slammed his right foot on his own while Aqua dopeslapped him behind the head with her stem.

"OUCH! I get it I get it! No need to get violent, grumpypants!"

He turned around and then, begun to climb the access ramp to his ship. Still, he took the opportunity to glance back at the two and wink at them before entering his ship. He chuckled to himself as he saw Aqua facepalm a second time while the red flowerian shrugged.

* * *

><p>Point wasn't sure he'd ever get used to this clash. The cheers of victory, the ellation of defeating the undefeatable, the relief as they stood, still alive, before impossible odds... only for the realization of how many had died to sink in, for the sobs of the dying to reach their ears, for them to realize that much of the blood spilled belonged to their friends.<p>

But though he and his friends could endure much, they knew they just needed to... stop sometimes. They couldn't, most of the time. If they did, they would freeze, they would stop living, they would become consumed. But one cannot run away from sorrow forever. And hiding from the mangled, mutilated remains of their friends would not banish the images of their empty, dead eyes eternally.

The area was secure or at least, as secure as any area on PNF-404's surface could be. Soon, the plan would be put into motion but the red elder knew from experience that with this moment of calm, the time came for the flowerians to put a conclusion to their adventures in this area. And this included making peace with the friends who are no longer here.

The predators are unforgiving, brutal, cruel. The truth was that flowerians who were killed tended to be turned into unrecognizable splatters of gore, if the predators left anything at all. Often, a single disembodied stem or arm in a pool of blood was all that was left of those who fell victim to this world's creatures. Simply put... there just wasn't much left for a funeral usually.

But... as much as it hurts on the spot, he accepted now that it was better like this.

There were moments when he felt like he was so immature. Being called an elder made him feel awkward. He still felt young, knew he was young, Aqua constantly told him they were all basically children mentally. Yet... as he stood here right now, he finally realized that maybe, maybe he truly was more mature.

The newly plucked didn't really understand. They could not comprehend that their friends were gone yet. And he was not sure how to really tell them, frankly, other than simply telling them they were. Others were still in denial, others angered. He could understand those feelings. Frankly... he's not sure how he feels himself.

Dandelion did not seem fazed but the red colonist was starting to notice the way his friend looked as he walked, carrying his load. He tried to look unfazed... but now that he looked carefully, the old soldier's gaze was too distant, too impassive. He was staring into empty space, as though he was not truly there...

It took him many seconds to recognize what the purple was carrying. The long cuts and bite marks were so deep and there just so much blood and gore that he could not tell who it had been. But its large size, the strands of purple skin that hanged from the ruined corpse... it was a purple, one of Dandelion's fellow soldier strain flowerians.

Aqua's assessment ringed in his mind, surfacing from his memory.

Without the purple starship and with the genetic resequencers being used up, there was no way to create more soldier strain flowerians anymore. Every casualty is a loss that cannot be replaced. Though Dandelion and his squad are fierce, brave fighters, their numbers are dwindling. Soon, none will be left. His strain will soon be extinct.

And for a moment... Point wondered. Was Dandelion aware of this, as he carried his dead friend? What went on inside of his friend's head?

It was crazy... he had never really thought about it but he realized that as well as the colony is doing, they are still so vulnerable. If the ships' cloning bays were to fail... or if the thrusters refused to work, stranding them on the surface when the predators woke up...

It would take so little to kill him and everyone he loves. The thought left Point disturbed and for a moment, almost forgetting where he is.

Well, until he noticed Floppy walking up to his starship. The yellow's steps were absurdly brisk, as if nothing had happened, as if he felt nothing. But like Dandelion, the red elder noticed that there was something odd about his friend. His steps were... slow. And he was holding something between his hands. For a moment, he thought it was some kind of funny yellow stick... but as he noticed the wilted, ruined flower at the end, he realized it was a stem...

"Hey, seems you forgot your stem, buddy. Must be pretty embarassing, to be wherever you are without it, huh?" The yellow elder said quietly, putting it under the ship's. The tractor beam activated and quickly sucked it in, the flowerian body part disappearing inside... "There. No need to thank me. I can't hear you from where you are, just like you can't hear me from here. You'll thank me once I see you."

He waved at the spot where the stem had vanished and then walked up to the oldest flowerian's side. Point just felt so awkward. How could Floppy be so calm?

"It's okay, Point. Let it out."

"I... I just wonder. We don't get any seed out of it and no food. In fact, I'd probably never eat again if we actually made food out of our friends. But I just... I wonder... they're gone. Why do this?"

"Hey, it's not like Goldy needed that stem anymore, given he's back among the stars. So sent it back to him."

The red flowerian sighed, staring at his feet, not sure what to think. "I don't think I'll ever get used to it..."

"Considering it's our friends who die all the time? I don't think we'll ever get used to it. Besides... this is just a temporary good bye." Noticing the red elder's stare, the yellow smiled. "This is PNF-404. We've been lucky so far but... who knows when our time will come?"

"I... I don't want to die..."

"Me neither, Point. Me neither..."

The red watched as the corpses were being moved, final goodbyes said to each of the deceased. Except for Dandelion. He and his squad had gathered and, without a word, merely saluted as they processed their dead. So few of the bodies were recognizable... even the most intact bodies were missing limbs, the head, were cut in half, or were simply covered in so many injuries one could barely tell what strain they had been part of.

Which brought back memories of the screams that turned into shrieks of agony, the sobs of those who had been cut in half or torn open...

He shuddered. "It all sounds, and looks, so painful. I... just that other night, when that big scary thing swallowed us and choked on us, it was... it was so painful. I never felt so much pain before. It was... it was just so painful I wanted it to end, regardless of how. It was... it..." He couldn't contain it anymore. "I-I don't want to! Never again! I... I don't... I..."

For a moment, Floppy stared at his friend as he sobbed, tears pouring as the horror of that night mixed with the horror of the mutilated corpses. And... he understood. He... did not look forward to when it would be his turn to be torn apart.

"Think of the positives..."

Mission accomplished! Point is glaring with a mix of anger and sheer incomprehension, mostly incomprension, instead of breaking down in tears further.

"We will see our friends again."

For a moment, the two were just silent. Everyone was finishing up, preparing for the night as the last few corpses were processed. Soon, the various flowerians would prepare to resume their normal schedules and to begin alternating as to the gathering of the valley's ressources.

Thoughts returned to the living's situation, to what had to be done. Or so it should have. Point's mind kept hanging on a certain detail...

"Crimson wouldn't have lost so many."

"Point, stop."

"I mean I froze up and because of me-"

"Point, listen to me." The red blinked as the yellow stared at him intently. "That snaggret was the size of a beady-long-legs. Even Aqua screamed in terror when she saw it. And she's the one who found the man-at-legs and the water wraith fascinating. Even Olimar would have had casualties against that thing. Frankly, I'm amazed we did so well given how freakishly huge it was."

"But... but..."

"I know it hurts. But you can't just mope around all the time either. I mean... what will Crimson say when you see him again?"

The red colonist rolled his eyes. But despite it all... he was right. The question of his competence wasn't that important, isn't it? Moping about just made him useless, well even more useless than usual.

"Well... seems we're done around here." said the yellow, noticing that everyone had kind of stopped, the last corpse processed. "Since Aqua will be starting her shift soon, what do you say if we gather everyone for the night? You and all your friends look all wilted and stuff. Finally getting a proper good night of sleep will do you all good."

On one hand, they had slept during the day following the snaggret's defeat. On another hand, he just felt... emotionally exhausted from all that had happened and from multiple nights spent awake doing stuff in this region. "I think we all need some sleep."

The yellow nodded at that. "Yep, we definitely do."

* * *

><p>Of course, given that most everyone had slept the last day, this meant that some were not sleepy. This included Floppy and Point, actually. Point did sleep for a short while only to find himself unable to find rest. His sleep was just too light and anyway, nightmares came to him. Usually, the red elder shrugged them off ; nightmares are a normal part of PNF-404 life due to its sheer brutality. But those nightmares were different. They were not flashbacks of his friends' deaths or his mind torturing itself with images of his possible death. Not that said nightmares were any better, in fact they had become even worse since he had been swallowed and almost digested by that giant worm-like freak.<p>

No. His latest nightmares were very, very specific. Worry. He was worried about his strain and more exactly, about all of the flowerians who went with Ageratum. Of course, he knew that Ageratum would never contact him and never did, actually. But Floppy and Aqua mentionned being in contact with him and spoke to him whenever they spoke. Yet... in over a week, he had heard no news.

So he moved himself through the silent ship and made his way to the main deck. The computer systems were there as usual, with a particularly young but intelligent red at the console, smiling to himself. Jules, if he remember well. Recently plucked but already so smart. The elder tried to search his memory and then remembered that Gale had spoken with him quite recently.

He smiled as he approached the younger red. It was so strange in a way. He looked so... amazed, so in awe. But then, the machines are incredible. Well, probably. What he mostly remember is the panic he had when he knew he'd have to use something this complicated.

"Hiiiii!" he went, waving energically.

The smaller red yelped before glancing behind him, suddenly trying to hide his face with the leaf at the tip of his stem. When the younger flowerian noticed it was the elder, he calmed down quickly, in fact smiling so widely one would think him a blue for a moment. "Oooh! Hi mister Point!"

"It's a cool machine, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it's awesome! Complicated though... my head hurts just trying to remember what Gale told me..."

He chuckled a bit. "It's alright. Frankly, that thing makes my heard hurts too. Good thing we got all those notes attached to the console!"

Smiles, nods, and then silence. However, the bundle of red energy would not bear the silence for once and spoke up soon enough. "So... why are you up?"

"I'd ask you the same thing!"

"I just couldn't sleep! Not after Gale shown me! I never knew the ships were this amazing... Did you know it could use some kind of shock-something to see? And that it could then show us what it see on that screen?"

"Yep!"

"Well, that's awesome! Still... you didn't tell me why you're not asleep. You looked so tired and you still look tired..."

And there came the reason why he had awakened. His recent nightmares...

"Do you remember when all of our friends split up?"

"When half of my friends followed that weird Agera-something guy? What about it?"

"I can't help but wonder... how are they doing? It's been a long time since they contacted us..."

And the two knew it to be true. When days are a long time, weeks are an eternity. It had been way too long since anyone had heard news from Ageratum's group.

"Do you mind if I use the console for a moment?"

"Sure thing, mister! I mean, sure you can use it!"

"It's alright. I got it."

And with that said, he took the seat in front of the console and begun to look all over the various notes. Okay... if he do this calmly, it shouldn't be too complex. He did this plenty of times after all.

In a way, it was amazing how the younger red remained fascinated the entire time even as Point typed his commands very slowly, having to look up the notes left all over the place every time and having to find the correct keys over and over. Still, eventually, the communication array was turned on and a pulse sent to establish contact.

Both colonists cheered with equal enthusiasm when the dull display of the screen was replaced by Floppy's face. Neither seemed to care that he looked positively exhausted.

"Point, it's..." the yellow elder looked briefly at something outside the display screen. "... it's two hours into the night. I'm trying to recover from last night."

"Oh! Oh. Oh..." went the red. "Sorry. I... well... it's just... you see..."

"Can you please not stretch it out for the entire night?"

Point scratched the back of his head, batted his flower out of in front of his face, and spoke up. "It's just... it's been a long time since I heard from my friends who went with Ageratum. Frankly... I'm worried. In fact, I'm very, very worried."

The yellow blinked a few times and then, scratched his chin. "Now that you mention it... there's been no response for days. You know... you may be right. We'll go check on them-"

"Oh thank you thank you thank you!"

"-TOMORROW! Sleep, Point. Please..."

"Oh. Alrighty then!"

There was a moment of silence...

"Point... The communication array."

"Oh. Right."

He turned it off.

* * *

><p>The first sign that things had went horribly wrong was when they reached the landing zone for the grey ship and found it landed the wrong way. As in, resting on the ground on its hull instead of its landing gear. The second sign was the large claw marks and bite marks that shown that predators had tried to tear it open.<p>

Actually, maybe that had not been the first sign now that Point really thought about it. Why was the ship in such a hard to land spot? They had nearly crashed their ships a million times! He had a feeling that it was a very good thing Floppy had agreed to come with him.

Of course, staring at that huge trench and the onion itself might have been a defensive mechanism by his mind that delayed his eventual reaction of the landing zone's looks. Which was why, for a good moment, he wondered why Floppy, Salsa, Dandelion, and pretty much everyone had their eyes widened to the size of saucers, their faces so pale one would think they turned into whites. As Point finally tore his gaze away from the less than intact grey ship and looked the area over for real, he quickly realized why they looked so pale as he himself felt the color drain from his face.

This was a sight he had hoped never to see again in his life, quite frankly.

He had pondered why the dirt was so soft and squishy when he had first disembarked from the ship. As his gaze lowered itself, he noticed that the dirt had a slightly red color. Looking closely then allowed him to notice that he was stepping on what seemed to be a soft twig. Further looking allowed him to notice it was connected to a torn leaf. A flowerian leaf. Which meant the twig was actually a stem. A stem without an owner. While his other foot was stuck in... what was... the... torn open chest of a fellow colonist.

Point could not scream. He wanted to, he tried to, his instincts tried to make him do so but no sound came of his mouth.

Blood... so much blood...

Newly plucked flowerians do not know what he and Dandelion spoke of when they said that the aftermath of their battles with their more terrible foes had looked like slaughterhouses. To see the dead literally pile up so much they covered the ground. To see so much blood that it covered the entire area like a lake, coppery in color, forming half-dried, filthy-looking rivers. To see the broken visages, the malformed faces forever frozen in their final screams of agony, their eyes empty and unfocused. The smell of death, overpowering. Maggots and sheargrubs out to feast, causing the mounds of bodies to twitch and writhe violently.

Hundreds. There had to be hundreds. Probably more. It reminded him of the aftermath of the fight with Titan Dweevil...

He couldn't control himself. He found himself hunched over, hurling everything he had eaten since this morning. His entire body spasmed and dizziness spun his head. Titan Dweevil's cackle thundered between his ears. Dead... many... so many...

Crying, so many were crying. The purples, aided by many yellows, tried to calm them down but the truth that even Dandelion himself felt confusion at the sheer extent of the death he was seeing. Floppy thought about saying that it was now obvious why Ageratum's strain had not contacted them but when he saw what was possibly an entire strain of flowerians extinct... his mind reeled.

How many had died was not a question.

"Did... did any survive?" Salsa's voice cut through the haze of Point's confusion. He slowly managed or rather forced himself to stand.

"Maybe... maybe some lived. I don't think I can see Ageratum's body parts anywhere..." The red elder saw the yellow one turn his gaze toward him.

He looked away. Away from the gore. Away from the death. He... he had to get ahold of himself. This... this was bad but he had seen worse. He had to focus. Everyone is relying on him. He must... he must stand. He must help his friends. No way everyone's dead. There will be survivors. He did not send all of those colonists just to die.

And he saw it. The blood formed... strange trails. Smaller trails on the outside. Near the footsteps of what had to be bulborbs and probably a lot of scary stuff he hope he won't run into. Steps... flowerian steps.

"Look!" Point yelled as loudly as he could. "I think there may be friends that way!"

He had yelled as loudly as he could and he was pleased when the gazes of his friends focused. The tears stopped, they stopped stumbling around in confusion. Suddenly, a single thought came to all of the colonists. Survivors. There were survivors. What would they do about it? The same they always did with anyone else who was in peril on PNF-404. Help them.

Floppy shuddered as he and the yellows followed the red strain flowerians. Having not met a survivor yet, only the remains of the dead spoke of what had happened to Ageratum's strain. The picture they were painting was not pretty at all.

The dents on the grey ship's hull, the damage on it shown that it had crashed. Not enough to be destroyed since the grass nearby was dead, a sign that the tractor beam had been in use. However, the marks did not lie as did the ship's position ; Ageratum had not been able to make the ship lift off again. The ship had obviously withstood predator attacks... so far. There was no saying how long the ship would have held on without help.

Given anyone survive to use it ; the presence of maggots and female sheargrubs shown that many of the dead flowerians had been killed days ago at least. Though many of the corpses were fresh, the dead had not piled up in the landing zone in a single day. Judging by the landing zone's looks, Ageratum had picked his landing spot very poorly and had to fight nearly every day, if not every day, to defend it from predators. Apparently, from the large amount of bodies, the predators had contested this territory fiercely.

This was another point that hinted at the presence of survivors ; only the corpses of flowerians covered the landing zone. If everyone had died, corpses of felled predators would have laid at their sides, given no one would have survived to feed them to the starship's tractor beam.

Still, this had to be a non-insignificant portion of the red strain population. The fact that so many had died...

Floppy suddenly realized he... may be to blame for this. That he agreed for Ageratum, despite being a poor leader, to follow into this plan.

He also thought of... all those who had accused him of being a bad leader. Of how he had told them that if they thought they were so good, to just take their friends and try to live on their own. Had... had he sent them to their deaths? Did fields of corpses like this existed near his own favorite landing zone?

For a moment, his vision grew blurry and he found himself almost tripping. No! Bad thoughts! He shouldn't think of such things.

The trail of bloody steps soon faded into just normal footsteps. Good. This means the trails had been made by others who had walked over the piles of the dead and not from dying flowerians who had tried to get away. So more hints that there's indeed survivors.

Still, he could only wonder how Point felt, how all his friends felt.

How many had joined Ageratum? How many reds... had just died? Not all of them. It couldn't be. As covered as was the landing zone with the dead, the reds numbered in the thousands. Still did. But... how many, really?

The more they walked, the more the yellow found himself thinking this particular area looked cool. The plants formed all kinds of hiding places for hide-and-seek, there were fancy colors everywhere, shadows and sharp rays of light formed neat shapes... and frankly, the sunshine on his flower felt fantastic.

But as much as he just wanted to lay down and enjoy the day, the sad truth was that he could see and hear how wrong this was. The long blades of grass and the near plants created too many hiding places. The sunshine was too blinding, the shadows too thick. The path was too narrow, the plant life forming walls enough to hide large predators without actually hindering their movements.

This place was as cool as it was deadly. And unfortunately, deadly trumps cool.

Slowly, the initial shock of the slaughterhouse they had walked in earlier begun to fade as the flowerians gazed upon their surroundings. Floppy remained focused, making sure no suspicious noises escaped his large ears. Unfortunately, he could hear plenty ; the area is not safe. Still, they all pressed forward, Point's heart filled with hope.

Eventually, what seemed to be a battle cry came to Floppy's ears. Then another. Then yet another. The everyone was startled as someone shrieked in terror loud enough to startle the color off everybody' faces, their stems straigthened and stiffening from the shock.

"Oh no!" Point almost panicked but knowing that would do no good, he channelled his sudden worry and fear into his legs, making him run as fast as he could.

"Everybody! Quick!" called the yellow leader, getting everyone to follow after the red elder.

And what greeted them...

Buzzing filled the air. Sobbing and moans of pain came from every direction. Point and Floppy's thoughts defaulted to this being a battle but upon looking more carefully, they realized that this was actually not much of one.

"YOU IDIOTS! FIGHT! FIIIIIIGHT!" yelled the bud-sporting red to no avail.

The colonists were losing their nerves. Almost every single one sported wounds, some of them having massive gashes and cuts all over their bodies. Torn leaves and buds, some with arms or legs that were outright broken... no one was really in any condition to fight.

This was not counting the corpses on the ground.

Huh? Corpses? Those insects with the big heads and the small wings that were barely bigger than a flowerian... shearwigs. But why would shearwigs eat dead flowerians? Don't they eat live ones?

The one of the corpses that a shearwug was eating let out a weak, pained moan as it tore off its right arm. The color drained off of Point's face at the sight and though he felt like hurling again, his stomach had already been emptied and nutrients from photosynthesis were not something one could send back the way it came.

Point recognized the red at the tall, arrogant flowerian's side. One of Ageratum's friends. What was his name again? And why is he alone with him? Doesn't Ageratum like to surround himself with lots of friends?

Point and Floppy both blinked in disbelief. Dandelion's gaze hardened.

Not every cry of pain was caused by the shearwigs.

"FIGHT! WHY WON'T YOU FIGHT?!"

The obviously newly plucked flowerian found himself whipped in the face by the older one's stem.

"I WANNA GO HOOOOME!"

"SHUT UP AND FIGHT!"

Ageratum's friend was about to whip the younger colonist in the face when a shearwig unpleasantly surprised him by landing on top of him and snatching his stem into its jaws. His eyes widened and he was about to scream when the insect sucked in, catching the unfortunate flowerian's head in-between its jaws. Muffled screams came from the insect's mouth as the red desesperately tried to free itself by punching at the thing's head before a sickening crunch was heard, the entire body going limp and lifeless as the insect begun to consume it at its own leasure.

It was too much. Way too much. Their nerve broke.

Point watched as dozens of reds scrambled past him in blind panic, managing to run faster than their injuries and weariness should logically allow. Ageratum yelled expletives at them but with most of his friends being eaten all around him, no one was listening to him anymore.

Ageratum's face... he looked... manic. It was like he was trying to sound confident but it just wasn't working. One could just see the twitch in his eyes, the way his stem drooped, the way his limbs shook incontrollably. His bud looked kind of... wilted and his vibrant red color had a greeny feel to it, like he was having the color literally stressed out of him. Needless to say, he kind of looked like a far cry from the confident, powerful-looking figure he had been when he had left weeks ago...

"YOU IDIOTS! COME BACK HERE! WHY DOES NO ONE LISTEN TO MEEEEEEE?!"

Point blinked a few times. The bud-sporting colonist was so busy stamping his foot that he had not even noticed that he and his friends had arrived...

"A-Ageratum?" The shearwigs scared him, they really did. But... but to see this...

The taller red noticed him, blinked a few times. Floppy thought of stopping his friend but did not. Still, he stared at the shearwigs. So close... feasting... creepy...

"You! This is your fault! You... you... this is all your fault! You left me the wusses only! It's all your fault!"

"Ageratum... your friends... this is... I'll help! Come on everyone!"

"Not one step! I won't let you! I won't let you be a jerk to me anymore!"

He won't let all those shearwigs eat all those poor flowerians. Floppy and Dandelion are by his side. The reds and yellows moved. Together, they would drive off those insects. But as he stepped forward, he yipped as he felt a blinding pain on his face and faceplanted. For a moment, panic overcame him! Had a shearwig latched on to him?

No... the pain is slowly fading. Very slowly fading but it is. And then something grabbed his stem. Fingers... and he found himself staring at Ageratum's face.

"THIS IS FOR ALL YOU DID TO ME!"

The world spun for a moment and Point wondered why. But then realized that the blinding pain, his smashed up nose, and the spinning world was the result of the punches Ageratum was giving him. It was incredibly painful and he felt his nose crack, the taste of blood appearing in his mouth.

He... he was just trying to save him and his friends! Why? He didn't leave him with just wusses, he wasn't mean to him! Why would he call his own friends wusses?

Ageratum is mean. He's really, really mean. He doesn't even make sense. He reminds him of a puffstool-infected flowerian except he doesn't even have that excuse. He had to fight them, to stop them. And now, as he's being punched, he realize that the taller red won't stop.

Dandelion was about to grab Ageratum and throw him away from his friend when Point reacted with lightning speed. His stem whipped so fast through the air that it actually caused a flapping-like noise. Point whipped the taller red in the face so hard it made an incredibly loud thwacking sound that echoed loudly enough to startle all of the shearwigs and many of their fellow flowerians.

Ageratum instantly let go of the shorter colonist, shrieking in pain as he clutched at his face, blood pouring from the massive cut created by Point's attack.

"GAH! THIS HURTS! YOU BASTARD SON OF A BULBEAR!"

The purple elder slowly helped lift his friend up to his feet. "Will you be alright?"

Said red elder straightened his nose again and took a deep breath. His left eye slowly fluttered open despite the black eye Ageratum gave him. "I-I'll be. We must help our friends."

The two didn't even pay attention to the arrogant bud-sporting red as he screamed bad words at them. They moved with purpose. Dandelion approached a shearwig slowly trying to tear open the back of a poor young flowerian's head, wishing to feast upon its brain matter. The soldier strain colonist grabbed the insect by the neck, lifted it right off of its victim and before it could even try to struggle or bite its attacker, the flowerian squeezed, breaking the insect's neck and killing it instantly.

Around him, reds and yellows cooperated to kill the shearwigs and save their friends. A bunch of the predators tried to lift off to gain an advantage only for Floppy and his friends to leap into the air and stomp on their backs, flooring them and allowing their waiting red allies to stamp their feet into the things' heads until they gave up the ghost.

And soon enough, within minutes, the rate at which their bethrens became lifeless corpses that littered the ground scared off the remaining shearwigs into leaving the half-plant creatures alone.

As Point's and Floppy's friends begun to pick up the injured and the dead, they turned to see Ageratum still screaming at them.

"YOU!" He pointed at the red elder. "My face! You hit me in the face! You're a jerk! A cross-pollinated bastard! You've always been mean to me! You-EEEEEK!"

Ageratum's enraged rant suddenly turned into a horrified shriek as he tripped over and fell on his face... because a shearwig, having failed to escape due to its broken wings, decided it may as well sneak up on the loud flowerian, snatching it in its jaws.

"Somebody, HEEEEEEEEELP-!"

Point and Floppy both blinked as the shearwig begun to wobble about, looking quite incomfortable as the bud-sporting flowerian stuck halfway in its mouth trashed about, slamming its fist into its left eye repeatedly, causing it to flinch and gag, unable to swallow.

"Don't just stand there! HELP ME! HELP!"

Point wanted to say something, to do something... but as he glanced at Floppy, he noticed that he was not moving an inch. In fact... he was just standing there, eyes narrowed, his arms crossed.

"Floppy?"

"Do we really have to?"

Point turned to the taller red. Really, why shouldn't they help him? He was a flowerian like them! He was-

"DON'T JUST STAND THERE CROAKING LIKE FLOWER-SPORTING WOLLYWOGS! HELP MEEEE-!"

Oh. Yeah. He's really, really mean. Like, really mean. He looked to Floppy for a moment and he wanted to say that Ageratum wasn't always like that but... now that he really think about it... when was Ageratum ever nice to him?

He tried to remember. He really did. But as far as he could remember, the moment he was old enough to actually be independant, he have been nothing but mean to him.

"But... it feels wrong."

"But there's a lot of injured friends. We're wasting our time with him."

He blinked a few times. It... it felt mean but there indeed was so many injured...

"D-Don't walk away! Come back! COME BACK!"

Floppy motionned to the red elder. He looked to his other friend but the purple elder shook his head.

"You... you can't abandon me! You can't-"

Dandelion stared at Ageratum and then, made a cutting motion with his hand over his own neck. The taller red's eyes widened as tall as saucers and for a moment, he went still. The shearwig instantly noticed it and brought its jaws down hard, crunching Ageratum's legs. Tears errupted from his eyes as he begun to trash about.

"NO! NO! PLEASE! I'M SORRY! PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME! IT WAS MY FAULT, IT WAS ALL MY FAULT OKAY?"

The three elders turned their backs to the taller red but did not move yet. Point shot pleading eyes at his other two. He really wanted to help him but the two were giving him flat stares. Crunching noises came from behind.

"OoooOOOOW! I-I'm sorry! I'll be good I'll be good! Pl-please I don't wanna die... I don't... wanna die..."

Point looked at his feet. He was being eaten, sobbing like the child he was. He... he couldn't abandon him. He just can't. No matter how mean he may be. And seeing his friends cringe and how sorry they suddenly looked...

Sure, he's mean. But he doesn't deserve to die. He won't let anyone die. Not even jerks. Not if he can help it.

Ageratum had lost all hope. His noice died in his throat as dizziness told him his strength was leaving. His punches no longer fazed the shearwig as it sucked him in more and more. He couldn't feel his legs anymore. He... his entire body hurt so much. He just felt... so sleepy.

Three shadows overlooked him. But he was in so much pain that he lost consciousness before knowing what they might have been.

* * *

><p>Ageratum woke up. His arms hurts, his face hurts, his lower body hurts, everything hurts. But he felt... well, that he felt anything meant he was alive. He had never felt so glad before to be alive. It was almost enough to make him forget how much his body ached... but not quite.<p>

As it stood, the familiar view of the red ship's medical bay greeted him. It wasn't his ship's medical bay ; he had rearranged it to be much cooler.

"You know... your injuries were really neat, you know?" Oh great. It's Squish. Joy. "You had stumps for legs and your lower body was like, all torn and all! It's amazing how tough the flowerian body can be at times, for all your organs to have remained inside! I mean... we still had to clone a new lower body and legs for you but geez! Talking about resilient! You're a tough little guy, you know that?"

"I hate you, nerd. Go away."

"Oh! Yeah! Floppy told me you had a bad attitude and that you needed a talking to. I guess I'll be off now that you're conscious!"

"Sure. Go pester an armored cannon beetle or whatever."

Why didn't he react or say anything? Oh well. He just felt so tired. He closed his eyes and wanted to sleep... but he heard the doors sliding open, revealing someone had come in.

"Go away."

"Not before we talk."

"Shut up, wuss."

The sigh didn't sound like Point or Dandelion. Guess that yellow idiot is with him. What do those two want? Why are they here? He opened his eyes and stared at them...

"You will show respect to your leader, Ageratum." Dandelion too? Just great.

"Nobody asked you, old guy."

"Drop the attitude. You're the idiot here, not us."

"Eat your own flower!" he tried to yell but he found himself suddenly tired. "It's all your fault. You left me with the wusses..."

"The only wuss here is you."

"Pollinate yourself!"

"You were entrusted with the safety of almost half of our strain. You are a disgrace as a leader. Your incompetence led to the deaths of hundreds of our strain." Dandelion's words frustrated him.

"It was his fault!" he pointed at Point. "He left me with all the wusses! They wouldn't listen to anything I say! They just ran in circles like morons!"

"No, you're the moron. For starters, the location you chose to land was impossible to defend and predator-infested." The taller red glared at the yellow elder.

"Just because you're a scaredy wuss who's scared of his shadow doesn't mean-"

Floppy did not let him finish. "Your leadership skills for combat were non-existent."

"We all killed bulborbs dozens of times! It's easy! They ate so many because they kept running in circles instead of fighting!"

"Ageratum. Your strategy was to burry the predators in bodies." The yellow walked up to his side and lowered his face until they almost touched. Ageratum suddenly felt his bravery drain away as he saw the yellow's enraged eyes. "You resorted to sacrificing your friends because you are so deeply, hopelessly, and totally incompetent that you couldn't come up with anything else. You sent hundreds of us to die because you could not think even two seconds using your head instead of your bud."

"But... but... they were wusses... nerds..." he tried to say.

"Every flowerian life is precious, Ageratum. That shearwig did not seem to care whenever you were a nerd or not."

He tried to say something, glancing at Point... but he... huh? Is he... why is he looking at him like that?

"You lie! I'm a better leader than the wuss! I'm much cooler than him! Just ask everyone!"

"Ageratum." Why is Point so quiet? "All of your friends... most of them begged me to be with me again. All the others... I and Dandelion had to stop them."

He blinked. "Stop... them? From what?"

"From kicking you off the ship before it lift off."

His mind screeched to a halt. He... he could not believe it. Refused to. "You lie. You... hehe... you lie!"

"Ageratum, I'm serious!" The purple insisted. "They stamped their foot, demanded we leave you behind. We had to lock them up in their rooms and then give them a talk to. And frankly, after hearing from them how you treated them, the only reason I didn't accept to kick you off the ship is because Point insisted."

No. It couldn't be!... could it? He turned to Floppy, hoping he'd say something... but he just crossed his arms and glared.

"They just... wanted to abandon me?"

"Yes." Point said, his stem drooping.

No. It didn't make sense! It didn't make sense! "B-but I'm better than you! I'm cool, awesome, the best ever!"

"Then why were you almost eaten by a shearwig until he saved you?" He glared at Floppy.

"Did not! I would have totally defeated it! I don't need you! Or anybody else!"

"So you'd be alright if we just left you behind?" He glared at Dandelion.

"That's not the same!"

Floppy turned to Point. And then to Dandelion. The three were looking at one another... what was that all about? Why are they nodding to one another! This is all Point's fault!

"Point... you gave him enough chances. It's time. Bring him to the airlock and eject him."

Ageratum's eyes widened very, very much. What had the yellow just said?

"W-what? But we're mid-flight! No way he'll survive a fall like that!"

"He won't survive if we simply leave him behind either." Dandelion stated.

"I-I know but..."

Panic gripped his entire body. They... they were just going to throw him overboard? In mid-flight? His vision grew blurry. That... that would kill him! He...

"N-NO! I-I don't want to die!"

"Ageratum! We won't endure you bullying our friend anymore and when we just tried to give you what you went, you went on and killed thousands of us! You've done more damage to the colony than anything else since Titan Dweevil himself!" Floppy was suddenly very, very scary again. "If you can't live with us, then you have to go! I won't let you drag anyone else down with you!"

His mind swam. They... they cannot do this. He... he doesn't want to die! "B-but... he's a... a... A WUSS!" he pointed at Point.

"NOBODY CARES!"

There was no sound except for Dandelion's breathing. His rage could be heard in every breath he took...

"No one cares if Point is cool or awesome or whatever nonsense! All I care is that when the day ends, me and everyone I know is alive and stay that way! He can do that, Ageratum! You can't! You have PROVED you can't! And if you're going to make everyone's life miserable just because you don't like him, then you can go and die alone in a ditch! Understood?"

His irises shrunk to dots as the purple glared at him. "UNDERSTOOD?!"

He nodded very, very quickly.

"This is your final chance, Ageratum. You either keep quiet and leave Point alone, or we kick you out the airlock. You make a choice. Now."

The bud-sporting flowerian glanced to the purple elder then to the oldest colonist alive. Then back to Dandelion. Then to the wuss. Then to the scary, large soldier. Then back again to the scaredy sprout moron. And his nerves broke and everyone kind of looked awkward as the taller red sobbed. He didn't want to die...

"B-b-but he's a wuuuuuuss!"

"Look... you don't have to like me. If you don't want to hang with me... then just don't. I mean... it's not like I'm asking much out of everyone anyway..."

"I hate you!"

Point stared at him for a moment, just feeling so awkward. "Why?"

"You trip all the time! And you're so short! And you're constantly crying and shrieking because you're scared! And everything scares you! Yet they-" He pointed at Dandelion and Floppy. "act as if you were cool just because you're older than me! That's not fair!"

"Ageratum..." Floppy just felt emotionally drained at this point.

"That's not fair! What makes you better than me? WHAT MAKES YOU BETTER THAN ME?!"

"He didn't get all his friends killed?"

"B-but they were-"

"Wusses." Point said quietly. "That's all you care about, really? That someone is tall and sound cool? That's... really all you care about? You know... I don't understand. I... I just want to be friends with everyone. I mean... there's so many predators. Why should we be sad? Why can't we just be happy and be friends? Yet... you just go around insulting and being mean to everyone. I tried to think of a moment during which you were nice... except I can't think of one. I... I don't want to throw you out. I don't know what to do..."

"Don't kill me! Please... please don't kill me... please..." His voice died down as his sobs resumed.

"You'll have to live with me and my friends. To listen when I want you to help..."

"But I don't want to!"

"Would you rather die?" Both Dandelion and Floppy stared at Point, as did Ageratum. "Would you rather die than live with me?"

Neither had expected him to word it like this. But when the two elders thought about it, it was the truth. Ageratum would never survive alone. He proved it with his failed attempt at leading his friends. This meant that his choice was to endure Point... or to accept death. Though they all realized that Ageratum, being selfish and immature as he is, would not realize this. But he would understand the threat of being thrown out.

It was so depressing. That Ageratum was so obsessed that only threats could make him move. Frankly... he sounded kind of crazy. They had seen insanity before. Amanite had went beserk after all. But to see it happen to a red, under a leader as undemanding as Point? It was... they didn't know what to say. They just gave him chance after chance...

But now was his last, worded as clearly as it could be.

Would he follow? Or would he die?

"I... I don't want to die..."

"Then try. You don't have to be my friend. Just... stop being mean to me, okay?"

"You're the one being mean to me!"

"Please try..."

And at long last, his anger burnt itself out completely. "... fine. I'll follow your stupid commands! I'll do what you say! I'll be your stupid friend! Just... just don't kill me, please..."

"I won't, Ageratum. I won't..."

* * *

><p>"So... thousands dead, a wrecked ship stuck in an insanely dangerous place that will require months of fighting to secure, and Point having scared a bud-sporting teen until he broke in tears. Olimar would be ashamed of us..." Aqua sighed.<p>

Point stared at his feet, Point and Dandelion doing the same as the female flowerian looked kind of... tired on the screen.

"It was the way I always dealt with bullies. I had never realized this was what my method truly did..." Floppy said, his tone and gaze distant.

"Don't. We will know better. Everyone do mistakes. Even Olimar. It's a harsh blow... but we will survive. Point..." The red male and the blue female stared at one another through the screen for a moment. For a brief instant, the two saw the weariness in one another's gaze. "For what it's worth... I'm sorry."

"I know you all tried to help. I guess... we just weren't good enough."

Some more silence. Well, until Point noticed that Floppy did not break the silence with a more positive subject, as he usually did. This actually worried him. This entire ordeal had shaken him far more than he thought he would. He had seen the yellow shaken up, everyone who had lived through at least one of the great wars had seen their share of dark thoughts. But... this actually worried him.

They needed to move on. Even if there were no positives to this... they needed to carry on.

"I guess... I have my work cut out for me."

He got strange looks from everyone, including Aqua. He found himself with his face red. Well... more red than usual, anyway. "I mean... I'll have to work hard to get my population back to its old level again, right?"

"Quite. And we do have a ship to secure." added Dandelion.

"Yeah! And I bet this region, once we secure it, will have lots of stuff for you, Aqua! Sure, it's dangerous... but we saw more dangerous before!"

She did not actually smile but he did see the gloominess vanish from her face. Considering the circumstances, it was enough for him. "Quite. And well, the place does look kind of cool. Thought of a name for it yet?"

"Well, it's really hot... and it's a wild place! So... Tropical Wilds?"

"Hmmm... well, I think that's a nice name. Congrats, Point! You named a place!" Good! Floppy is talking again!

And now Aqua and all his friends are smiling again. The dead will be burried and he'll have to get Ageratum to live with him, day after day. But those will be for another day. Right now... he will spend for his friends and think of the future and how they can make it a happy one that all their friends will live to see.

* * *

><p><strong>Fin<strong>


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